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CLASS 46


Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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Who we all are...
Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh
Birgit Clark
Blog Administrator
Christian Tenkhoff
Fidel Porcuna
Gino Van Roeyen
Markku Tuominen
Niamh Hall
Nikos Prentoulis
Stefan Schröter
Tomasz Rychlicki
Yvonne Onomor
MONDAY, 15 JULY 2013
Scotland to go it alone on plain packaging?
Despite the UK Government's recent apparent and controversial U-turn on plain packaging for cigarettes and its decision not to proceed with legislation before the next general election on the basis that it wanted to monitor the Australia situation, the Scottish Government has indicated that it will go ahead with its own legislation.

According to this article in The Scotsman newspaper, Scottish public health minister Michael Matheson has indicated that Scotland will now identify an appropriate timescale to introduce the relevant legislation. This proposal raises all sorts of questions, an important one being how the proposition sits with EU/UK intellectual property laws and international IP treaties and obligations such as TRIPS. Even though it raises potential clashes with the IP regime, it is nonetheless an issue upon which the Scottish Government can on the face of it legislate, as it is not a reserved matter for the UK government in Westminster. 

It will be important to follow developments in Scotland since challenges are likely to be made to any legislation which Scotland seeks to introduce. The precedent of Australia suggests that the introduction of plain packaging in Scotland will not be unopposed. 

Source: Gill Grassie (Brodies LLP, Edinburgh)
Posted by: Blog Administrator @ 11.58
Tags: Scotland, plain packaging,
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MARQUES does not guarantee the accuracy of the information in this blog. The views are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of MARQUES. Seek professional advice before action on any information included here.


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