Keeping the UK Trade Mark Register pristine

I am sure that many times you click the link to VIEW OWNERS OTHER MARKS and you don't always get what you expect. Strangely your trade mark seems to a lone wolf. Don't be misled? Many trade mark owners never bother to synchronise their portfolios.

Even though the UK -IPO do not charge a fee for the update of a name or address using a Form TM21A most representative's will charge for the update. Making this type of change is currently fairly time consuming for an owner or his representative. I have just spent 40 minutes from start to finish dealing with one simple change. If I had done the same thing at the EU IPO it would be all sorted in maybe 4 - or perhaps two times that because I did the change of representative on my UK case at the same time and that would have been a separate operation prior to the name change at EU IPO.

So because its really nice to View owners other marks and because its even nicer to offer owners a free service to make these simple updates - could we ask the smart masters of the website to consider whether the next form to migrate to being online could be the TM21.

It might need some added security as we don't want incorrect updates to be registered and being fee-free might allow some nefarious activity to take place. However I am sure that could be managed. I have no evidence that EU IPO have suffered unduly from false amendments.

With many trade mark owners reviewing their portfolios in readiness for #Brexit this would be a good time to make this available.

What do folk think ? would this improve the service to both the public and the trade mark owners.

ACID stands up for the UK profession

One of the greatest supporters of the UK creative sector is Dids Macdonald and the Anti Copying In Design Group ACID which she masterminds. I frequently suggest to my creative clients that they become members as they start their business journey. I notice on twitter that Dids was concerned that Brexit meant the loss to UK designers of Community Unregistered Design Right - not something that is much enforced. In the UK our own unregistered design right has a far longer duration but it obviously does not give you free rights beyond the English channel.

As I have previously discussed many design clients are generally unwilling to pay for even great value legal support.

Cath Kidston's registered Design DM/093635-12

The real loss to those UK based designers is the ability to register a Community Registered Design without legal representation. Post Brexit they will need to work with a representative. This can't be a local UK one unless some deal is done. Its hardly likely that a deal will be done to allow UK representative to act before the EU IPO. Its not going to be a high priority for the UK government in the negotiation due to the low value of existing business to the UK legal profession that will be lost.

However the UK government is committed to joining the Hague System. At present a UK designer can access Hague as an EU citizen because the EU is a contracting party. Not that many do as you can see from the Hague Express Database which reveals only 3 designs with GB addresses registered so far in 2017. However post the UK accession to Hague it will become a great deal more attractive. With a single application you can have a UK registered design and a Community Registered Design and if you wish ask for protection in any of the other territories which are Hague Contracting parties Switzerland Norway and Turkey are the useful European contracting parties. US and Japan are the most likely to be of economic value to British designers.

Therefore my free advice to British creatives is that registration via Hague is your best route to protection beyond these shores. Cath Kidston thinks registration may be useful but her highly creative company is choosing to register the type of textile fabric design that is the simplest to represent as shown above. The Cath Kidston business will also have copyright in that design but  no doubt appreciates that the proof of copying element of a copyright case can be onerous.

Planning for Brexit for our UK clients is something we should now be considering. Using Hague is just one proposal. In future posts I would like to consider what is the best advice for our UK clients to prepare their IP portfolios. It seems we can rely on CIPA and CITMA to do the best they can for our overseas clients.