Transition Period: Intellectual Property rules are changing

The transition period ends on 31 December 2020. On 1 January 2021 there will be changes to how the Intellectual Property (IP) system and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will operate.

These changes will affect:

• Trade Marks and Designs
• Parallel trade from the UK to the EEA
• Unregistered Designs

Business are being urged to:

• consider carefully where to disclose your designs to ensure they have adequate protection in their most important market
• if you export IP-protected goods on the secondary or parallel market, contact the rights holder in the EEA to see if you have permission to continue to parallel export
• consider if you want exports to continue if you are a business that owns the IP rights for goods currently parallel exported from the UK to the EEA