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. 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. The Bill will end the special status of REUL in the UK by the end of 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).

The Bill is currently in the House of Lords, where a new government amendment was introduced on 10 May. If agreed by Parliament, this will to set out a new schedule listing all of the retained EU law (REUL) that will be revoked at the end of 2023. This will replace the current approach where all REUL would be automatically sunset unless preserved.

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 84 pieces of Intellectual property (IP) related legislation that potentially fall within the scope of provisions of the Bill.

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.

Following the removal of the automatic sunset from the Bill, the government has defined which pieces of law will be revoked at the end of 2023. This includes some REUL relating to IP that is inoperable or otherwise redundant. This provides greater clarity and certainty to the statute book, allowing the government to focus on delivering more reform of REUL. We will continue to consider options for reform of REUL, which are beneficial to innovation and growth, through the use of 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 seek to achieve.

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