Once the UK leaves the European community, European Union trademarks (also known as community trademarks) as well as registered community designs will no longer be valid in the UK.

It is expected that during the next two years regulations will be formulated to allow for conversion of existing European Union trademarks and registered community designs to cover the UK. in the meantime, clients will have to decide whether to file separate applications in the UK and the EU or to continue to file European Union marks and where it is decided to file both in the UK and the European Union there will be an increase in costs.

Another issue concerns use of a trademark in the European Union. If the use is solely or primarily in the UK and the UK no longer is part of the European Community, the EU registration may be subject to a claim of invalidity.

In addition, Trademark owners will no longer be able to obtain a European Union – wide injunction from a UK court. This will necessitate parallel proceedings in British and European Union courts for injunctions covering that the European Union and Great Britain.

As for patent protection within Europe and the UK, since the European Patent Office (EPO) operates pursuant to the European Patent Convention (EPC), which is not an EU treaty but rather operates in parallel to it, and assuming the UK will remain a part of the EPC, our understanding is that EPO patents will continue to be registrable in the UK.

However, there are various initiatives in the works at the EU, which if finalized will result in the creation of a new type of (unitary) patent within the EU system, as well as the creation of a Unified Patent Court (UPC) for enforcing patents throughout the EU. After the UK's departure from the EU is finalized, these new patent initiatives will presumably not extend into the UK, and indeed given the UK's exit from the EU, there's a possibility that these new European patent initiatives may end up being scrapped.

It is not expected that there will be any major impact on copyright since neither the UK nor the European Union have systems of copyright registration.

We will be receiving more information from our British associates during the next several months which will probably result in clarification of some of these issues and raise other issues that have not yet been carefully considered.

The most important thing now and in the coming months is to assure IP owners that there is no reason to panic or do anything at this point since there should be plenty of time to consider the ramifications of the UK withdrawal from the European Union and to ensure that there is no gap in the protection of client trademark, design and patent rights in the UK and Europe.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.