Britain and the EU: A new chapter begins

The decision to leave the EU, which will take several years to implement, will have no impact upon D Young & Co's ability to continue providing its full range of services to clients, from its offices in London, Munich and Southampton.

A UK exit from the EU will have no effect on our ability to represent clients before the European Patent Office (EPO), and will have no effect on the coverage of a European patent or patent application, as European patent system is governed by the European Patent Convention, a non-EU treaty.

With regard to European trade mark and design applications, we have already taken steps to ensure that we will remain able to represent clients before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO, formerly OHIM) and, in due course before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), regardless of the exit of the UK from the EU. These include both the recent opening of our Munich office and also ensuring our attorneys and solicitors are suitably qualified to act on behalf of all our existing clients.

Once the UK's departure from the EU has been finalised, existing European Union trade marks (EUTMs) and registered Community designs (RCDs) will no longer provide coverage in the UK.

We anticipate that appropriate UK legislation will be implemented to ensure that such rights continue to have effect in the UK. For example, by converting existing EUTM rights to UK national rights enjoying the same priority/filing dates.

For the time being, and until such time as the UK's leaving the EU has been formally recognised (which may take several years), EUTMs and RCDs should (and can) be enforced as normal. In terms of filing new marks during this transitional period, and if pan-European protection is desired for a particular brand, we recommend filing both an EUTM (and design, if appropriate) along with separate UK national applications.

As always, we will continue to put the needs of our clients and people first and explore ways in which to grow and expand our client offering in years to come.