Trade Mark protection in the UK after Brexit

During November, position papers were coming thick and fast from IP organisations on Brexit. Mostly they are very

demanding and expect the UK's final deal to cover detailed issues on intellectual property. Such provisions will come, but they are unlikely to reach the priority these organisations expect. The EU IPO seem to think so too. They have also issued a paper (or at least the European Commission has done so on their behalf) which, to me, reads as a very strong message that it is brand owners responsibility to look after themselves.  Here are the papers:

• Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attrorneys (UK body- CITMA) 20 pages
• INTA (International brand owners- US based) 9 pages
• Marques (brand owners - UK based) 9 pages
• European Commission  countersigned by the EU IPO (registrar) 2 pages 1 December 2017

All of these demands and comments were made before the phase 1 deal was reached on the night of Thursday 7/Friday 8 December 2017.

Our minister with responsibility for Intellectual Property  is Jo Johnson, brother of the greater Bo, was very pleased about the deal in respect of the Universities - his main responsibility  - as it seems UK academic institutions can continue to participate until 2020 in EU research projects to freely disseminate UK IP into Europe.

Good news 4 science: 1. UK participants in existing projects guaranteed EU funding. 2. Projects approved to continue, with uninterrupted EU funding. 3. UK based orgs & people can bid for H2020 funding, participate in & lead consortia, post-exit, in '19+'20https://t.co/veLAEabQOL

— Jo Johnson (@JoJohnsonUK) December 8, 2017

No reply yet as to whether UK representatives at EU IPO have the like freedom to continue as representatives while we pay to continue our support for our European neighbours.

There is a substantial amount of EU IPO business with UK legal firms that do not have European subsidiaries to take it on, that is available for transfer.  CITMA members have already commented on their clients being poached, but has anyone received a business proposition? Brexit will happen. It would be nice to know there are responsible representatives offering to provide an orderly transition for brand owners based outside the Euro27. If you are one such, do ask those making unsolicited approaches how they will work with your current representative and how they will reimburse them.

Selling for Solos

There is no shortage of marketing advice out there. Everyone seems to be prepared to offer me some service to develop my professional image and bring in new clients. Our Professional Bodies ITMA and CIPA are offering a Webinar that will tell us how to do it and it seems we have come a long way from the days when a brass plate and a tombstone advert in Yellow Pages were considered daring. Even the EPI consider that European Patent Attorneys can advertise

Advertising is generally permitted provided that it is true and objective and conforms with basic principles such as integrity and compliance with professional secrecy.

IPREG insists

Publicity and promotional activity of any kind by regulated persons is permitted if it is fair, honest, accurate and is not misleading and is not otherwise in breach of these Rules.

Networking - some of our bigger competitors are enjoying an #AIPPI2012 trip to Korea at the moment, article writing, and websites are now the norm.

This blog's co-found Shireen Smith of Azrights has gone one further in adding value to advertising material and is selling her educational and informative book to her target audience.

Our competitors are banding together in marketing groups like Quality Solicitors, who are also producing jolly TV adverts that can gain even greater publicity by social media, such as this.

While these methodologies may be perfect if you want to grow your business and recruit, they may not be ideal if you want to maintain a steady workload. For that, perhaps we need to nurture our existing clients and work referrers. Of course if you have been too successful with the marketing techniques, you can perhaps pass some on to another SOLO practitioner.

I would love to see some comments on how others are managing to control the workflow.