GovWire

Retained EU Law (REUL) and intellectual property

The Bill

The government introduced the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill on 22 September 2022, and it received its second reading on 25 October 2022. The Bill will be proceeding through Commons Committee stage during November 2022. The aim of the Bill is to make it easier to amend, repeal or replace EU law retained on the UK statute book to reduce regulatory burdens and costs on UK businesses. This will end its special status in the UK by 31st December 2023.

The Bill will also make it easier for UK courts to depart from retained EU case law.

The government has committed to maintaining compliance with all our international obligations (including those contained within the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Withdrawal Agreement, and other international treaties).

IP related law

The Bill will have an impact across all intellectual property rights. This includes protection and enforcement of trade marks, designs, copyright, patents, Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPC) and trade secrets.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has identified 70 pieces of Intellectual property (IP) related legislation that potentially fall within the scope of provisions of the Bill. We expect this number to change as we identify further legislation or further consider previously identified legislation.

Many areas of IP are interdependent with policies in other government departments and agencies.?These include medicines regulation, e-commerce, geographical indications, competition law and customs regulations. The IPO is working with those departments and agencies to make sure that such connections are addressed.

Precedent

There is a significant amount of EU, or European originated, case law precedent within the IP system.

Some of this case law is fundamental to the operation of IP rights, for example, the definition of a trade mark. In selected areas we may seek to codify precedent by converting and consolidating relevant case law into legislation to ensure the continued functioning of the Intellectual Property framework.

IPO approach

We recognise the importance attached to stability and certainty in the area of intellectual property. These will be prominent considerations for the government when making decisions on retained EU law in this area.

Government must decide whether retained EU law, in scope of the sunset provision should be allowed to lapse, or whether to retain, replace or reform it. We will want to consider options for reform, which are beneficial to innovation and growth. The end-2023 deadline means we will work at pace to understand the change, advise ministers on decisions they will need to take, and implement these using the powers in the Bill.

Working with our stakeholders

The UK is recognised as having one of the best IP systems in the world, with our strong IP rights underpinning many science, innovation, and business success stories. The UK system is?aligned internationally on many aspects of IP, which supports international trade.

We want to provide our stakeholders with information in a timely and accurate manner, engaging where possible and being transparent about what we can expect to achieve within the timeline.

We are publishing this list to ensure our stakeholders have access to our latest understanding.