Brexit on industrial property? Not so fast please

The decision of the
United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union – in the language used by the
so mentioned art. 50 of Treaty of the European Union - seems to have opened,
paraphrasing the title of the story by the British writer Rudyard Kipling,
la Gate of a Hundred Sorrows. Lamenting voices abound and
alarm messages. But the truth is that the door has not yet been opened
(notification to the Council has not occurred and, foreseeably, it will take
be done) and it remains to be seen the scope and degree of the ailments that are
call to provoke, that is, the
conditions under which the exit will be negotiated.

In what
regards industrial property is clear, on paperThat the
The UK's march will test the strength of such systems.
laboriously built over more than half a century around the
unification and harmonization regarding trademarks, designs, indications
geographical, designations of origin, plant varieties, industrial secrets
or patents. Trademarks and designs that are registered at the Property Office
Intellectual Union of the European Union (EUIPO), based in Alicante, will no longer have
effect in the United Kingdom and measures will have to be arbitrated to determine what happens
with the titles already registered and with the files in progress. Something similar
will happen with geographical denominations, indications of origin and
plant varieties, while the harmonization of the secrets
newly agreed industrial sectors cannot be imposed on the United Kingdom.

The patent
European initiative with unitary effects, an initiative to which, as is well known, no
has incorporated Spain, it loses one of its most visible interlocutors. Of a
On the other hand, the possible future unitary protection for European patents is no longer
will be able to cover the UK. And, on the other hand, the proposed Agreement
International creating a Unified Patent Court, in addition to needing,
for its entry into force, a different ratification, must be retouched in
as London was the chosen headquarters for one of the three sections of
its Central Division, which would deal with the area of ​​chemistry, metallurgy
and life sciences.

Businesses
They must weigh in their strategies on intangible assets what impact
may have to opt for systems that leave out such a relevant territory,
but there does not seem to be any reason for now to make hasty decisions.
The United Kingdom will in due course country of registration to whose
shores will not reach the unitary effect of the marks and designs of the Union
European Union nor the action of its Courts. But that was how it had been until not long ago.
for so long and companies and professionals lived with it.

However there is
consequences of the departure of the United Kingdom that escape the scope of the
prosaic, but what they have for industrial property – the same as for
copyright- an extraordinary importance. Whether you want the Kingdom or not
Kingdom embodied in many sensitive matters a model of seeing things
–let's call him, anglo saxon– who often struggled with the model
more European or continental.

The tensions
between these somewhat antagonistic conceptions of property rights
intellectual and industrial, or even unfair competition, were left
feel - and in what way - in the very creation of the legislation community y
in its interpretation by the Court of Justice. It is worth asking if with the
disappearance of british influence the situation could change
in the future and the difficult balance reached in certain areas could
to be made smithereens forever.

For the moment and
to end, as we began, with a quote from the British Kipling and his famous
poem “Yes”, the European Union will have to deal with in this stage that is now opening
de keep your head when around him all the
lose y bend over and rebuild with the tools
worn out the things to which dedicated his life y which
now he sees them destroyed.