Are you Brexit Ready?

Brexit presents a daunting range of challenges to businesses of all kinds. Increasingly important to the value of any business, Intellectual Property (IP) rights will be impacted in a variety of ways and no more so than in the consumer products space.  At Wynne-Jones IP we solved the Brexit issue long before we knew UK citizens would vote ‘leave’.  We established a pan-European business that runs under its own entity called AIPEX. 

Read on to see how Wynne-Jones IP and AIPEX, working together, can ensure you are Brexit ready ahead of 2019.

There are wide implications for owners of IP in the licensing industry and it can seem very daunting whether you’re an established brand, a business or a small agency representing clients in just one or many markets.  Whatever your business size, and wherever you’re located, Brexit and the need to re-work the protection of your trade marks and designs WILL need managing.  And at Wynne-Jones, we recommend you think and start acting upon on it now, not in a year’s time.   

Victor Caddy, Partner at Wynne-Jones sums it up simply for you in the next few paragraphs: 

“Anyone can file an EU trade mark application or a Community design application.  The real question is what happens after that given that only a national of an EEA member state can represent you subsequently in prosecuting your application or dealing with other matters.

“In order to overcome these difficulties some UK firms plan to divert their EUIPO work to branch offices in the 27 remaining EU states.  However, we realise that many of these offices are best suited to serving local clients which is, after all, why they were originally set up.  

“The challenge is to retain links between IP owners and their existing contacts in the UK - those attorneys that they already know and trust - while minimising problems caused by differences in national laws, languages, cultures and traditions – as well as the tricky question of who can charge the client for the work that’s been carried out.” he concludes.

Formed in 2010, AIPEX, has offices in 16 of 27 EU states.  As a Europe wide law firm, it offers a tailor-made solution to managing the IP portfolios of pan regional and international businesses.  Its team of more than 500 highly qualified professionals, more than 200 of whom are qualified attorneys from the member firms, means that it can work across a company’s entire IP portfolio, including patents, trade marks and design, as well as key areas such as infringement, prosecution, renewals and strategy. 

Meanwhile, through AIPEX, Wynne-Jones IP, can continue to represent its clients before the EUIPO.  AIPEX will be the address for service for all the Community designs and EU trade marks on the books of Wynne-Jones, so we retain complete control of all client affairs.   And most importantly for licensing and consumer products IP owners, Wynne-Jones clients in the UK will notice no difference from how things work now and benefit from no double charging.

Now there’s a reason to be Brexit ready.  Get in touch with Victor at Wynne-Jones for a consulting meeting to see if Wynne-Jones and AIPEX can help your business, large or small, UK or international, be ready for 2019.