The European Commission has published a paper on intellectual property rights after Brexit, which was sent to the EU27 ahead of the Council Working party (Article 50) on 7th September 2017.

The paper covers unitary rights including registered Community designs (RCDs) and unregistered Community designs (UCDs). It sets out five "general principles".

The first of these states that holders of IP rights with unitary character granted before the withdrawal date "should, after that date, be recognised as the holder of an enforceable intellectual property right in relation to the United Kingdom territory, comparable to the right provided by Union law - if need be on the basis of specific domestic legislation to be introduced".

The paper adds that the implementation of this principle should not result in financial costs for IP right holders, and any administrative burden for right holders should be kept to a minimum.

Read more about the paper in this post on our sister blog, Class 46.