Our Firm has obtained from the EUIPO one of the first rulings on the subject of conflict between European trademarks and UK trademarks after Brexit.

This was address in the ruling on 8 April 2021 in case R2212/2020-1, in which the Board of Appeal found that a UK trade mark was no longer relevant in the European Union and therefore overturned the decision of the Opposition Division, which had refused to register an EU trade mark on the basis of the earlier UK trademark.

Accepting our thesis, the Board of Appeal applied the principle, which the Office had expressed only as an indication in the period of transition to Brexit, according to which, regardless of their procedural status, all actions based solely on UK rights that were still pending on 1 January 2021 must be dismissed for lack of a valid basis.