05 January 2026Publication
Jurisdiction – the “Brexit transition period gap”
The Belgian Supreme Court has held that the Hague Convention 2005 continued to apply to the UK during the Brexit transition period
What's happening?
Many of the UK’s intellectual property (IP) laws are derived from EU law. Following Brexit, existing EU-wide rights were replaced by new UK national rights which were effectively clones of their EU parents administered by the UK Intellectual Property Office or Plant Varieties Office.
Going forward, IP right holders and users of the IP system will need to deal with a major market where IP rights are free-standing and where the local law is likely to diverge over time from the law in the EU, as judgments from the EU courts will no longer bind the UK courts.
How we can help
The UK has always been a well-respected jurisdiction for resolving IP disputes and UK law a flexible and predictable choice for international contracts and we expect this to continue in a post-Brexit world. We're uniquely placed to assist clients to protect their IP both in the UK and in Europe, with expertise across all major jurisdictions in Europe covering the full range of IP rights including:
- trade marks
- designs
- databases
- copyright
- software
- trade secrets
- biotechnology inventions
- patents
- SPCs
- patent litgation
- transactional IP
Take a look at our full list of IP services.
Recent news
The DSM directive: One year on
EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was due to be implemented in the EU by 7 June 2021. Only a handful of countries have done so, our experts in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and the UK provide advice on the DSM directive, including the stance in the UK where the Directive won’t be adopted.
UK's future exhaustion of IP rights regime
The UK recently launched a detailed consultation to consider what IP exhaustion regime it will apply in the longer term. The UK Government is broadly considering 4 options: (i) maintaining the current, UK+ regime, (ii) moving to a national exhaustion regime, (iii) moving to an international exhaustion regime or (iv) creating a mixed regime where specific goods, sectors or IP rights are subject to different regimes.
-> Read more
Related links
A list of handpicked links from around our website.
Webinars
We produce regular webinars on the topic of intellectual property and Brexit. Join live or watch on demand.
This document (and any information accessed through links in this document) is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from any action as a result of the contents of this document.
Key contacts
If you have any questions, contact a member of the Intellectual property team for assistance:
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