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Brexit has prompted a surge in the number of applications in the UK, according to new data.
UK businesses could previously apply for a single EU to protect their assets in both the UK and EU. However, after the transition, EU have no longer protected assets in the UK market, after the UK introduced its own rules and process. Firms have therefore had to file for separate UK and EU to secure continued protection.
Brexit has triggered a record number of for in the UK, with 195,000 registered in the past year*, up 54% from 127,000 the year before, says leading law firm Mathys & Squire. Due to this surge, waiting times for applications have also increased from a period of weeks to a longer three-to-four-month period. The huge surge in applications since Brexit, has forced the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to recruit more than 100 new staff to clear the backlog.
According to gov.uk advice issued before 1 January 2021: “Each new UK right will be treated as if applied for and under UK law, and may be challenged, assigned, licensed or renewed separately from the original international registration.”
Gary Johnston, Partner and Co-Head of at Mathys & Squire, comments: “The Brexit-fuelled rush to file and appoint UK attorneys in 2021 has been unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the UK. Businesses from around the world have been forced to spend much more time and money on protecting their separately in the UK. UK businesses have had exactly the same problem with their European IP. We’ve been tremendously busy filing for UK businesses in Europe too.”
“This huge volume of filings is unlikely to go away. Now we have left the European regime, this is the level of activity we can expect in the future.”

Pirelli wins a tyre dispute in the EU
The dispute at hand concerns figurative European by Pirelli in 2001 for class 12. On 27 September 2012, Yokohama filed before an application for a declaration of invalidity of the mark at issue for the goods ‘Tyres, solid, semi-pneumatic and pneumatic tyres for vehicle wheels of all kinds’. as written by intellectual property planet blog.
By decision of 28 August 2014, the Cancellation Division of declared the mark at issue invalid for those goods, as well as for ‘rims and covers for vehicle wheels of all kinds’, on the ground that the mark at issue consisted exclusively of the shape of the goods concerned necessary to obtain a technical result. Pirelli then filed a notice of appeal against that decision with .
The Fifth Board of Appeal of upheld the appeal in part, annulling the decision of the Cancellation Division in so far as it had declared the mark at issue invalid for ‘rims and covers for vehicle wheels of all kinds’. It dismissed the appeal as to the remainder, thus confirming the invalidity of the mark at issue in respect of ‘Tyres, solid, semi-pneumatic and pneumatic tyres for vehicle wheels of all kinds’. The decision was finally appealed before the General Court of the EU.
The Court overturned it concluding that the sign at hand does not perform any technical functions. The reason for this is that the mark represents only a single groove of a tyre tread and just alone it cannot has technical function. In order such a function to be achieved other elements from the tyre are necessary. What’s more the groove represents one very small part of the entire tyre.