As is known, the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31 January 2020. One of the unresolved questions was the effect that this withdrawal would have on the so-called Unified Patent Court which is being set up as a litigation forum for Unified European Patents, covering most countries...
European Directive on Open Data
The deadline for European Union Member States to transpose the European Union's 2019 Open Data Directive into national law expired on 16 July 2021. The new rules update a directive originally agreed in 2013 and address some of the issues that arose in implementing that directive.
Priority Claim for European Design Rights based on Patent Application
Can an application for a community design registration claim priority of an international patent application – and if so for how long? That was the question that the Court of Justice of the European Union had to decide in matter T-579/19. Their decision dated 14 April 2021 was very interesting...
Counterfeiting and Piracy Hotspots
The European Commission’s recently published its second Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List. This list names websites and physical marketplaces located outside of the EU (but are often accessible to European consumers) that are reported to engage in, facilitate or benefit from counterfeiting and piracy. These activities undermine the intellectual property...
EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement
The European Union and the United Kingdom finally completed their negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement on Christmas Eve. The published text is available both on the European Commission's and the UK government's website. It comprises 1246 pages of dense text including a number of annexes. In addition there...
Brexit and Intellectual Property
The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union raises a number of questions regarding the impact on existing and future intellectual property rights. The end of the Brexit transition period set out in the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...