Intellectual property—post-Brexit transition guidance from Intellectual Property Office

Article summary

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published updated guidance for customers and users of IP. Subjects covered in this guidance include the update to the paragraph on ‘Parallel trade between the UK and the EEA’, a new paragraph and link for the bulk change of address service, announcement that the Search UK trade mark classes service and the orphan works licence service will be unavailable from midnight to 5.00 pm on 16 January 2021, information on the duration of copyright, an addition of duration of term to copyright notices and more. While the Brexit transition/implementation period ended at 11pm on 31 December 2020 (IP completion day), the government continues to issue new and updated Brexit webpages and guidance documents on the associated legal and practical changes. Further guidance may be issued post-IP completion day, so stakeholders are advised to monitor these pages for updates.