Brexit causes changes in law

Dear ladies and gentlemen,We inform you that in connection with the Brexit from January 1, 2021, trademarks and industrial designs registered in the European Union (EU) both directly through the European Intellectual Property Office and through the Madrid system (for trademarks) or the Hague system (for industrial designs), will not apply to the UK.Nevertheless, the British Intellectual Property Office will create separate national registrations for trademarks and industrial designs on the basis of EU trademark and industrial design registrations, which will have effect directly for the UK.Such “cloned” registrations will be subject to separate renewal at the UK Office, and will be identical to the registrations of EU trademarks and industrial designs in all respects: priority dates and renewal dates as well as the same amount of legal protection will be preserved.Owners of EU trademarks and industrial designs will not need to take any additional steps to obtain a “cloned” registration of a trademark or industrial design in the UK.Regarding applications for EU trademarks and industrial designs, the prosecution of which was not completed till January 1, 2021, the UK Office will provide a grace period of 9 months for submitting a national application for the same object on the basis of the EU application, while maintaining priority.We will inform you upon the fact of "cloning" / creation of national registrations in the UK, and add the "cloned" registration to our database in order to timely notify you of the need to renew it.Thank you for your attention.