By Carin Burchell, ECTA International Trade Committee, Re Markability Limited (UK)

This Parliamentary Bill aims to end the special status of EU law in the UK by 31 December 2023. The effect will be to make it easier to amend, repeal or replace EU law which is currently retained on the UK statute book.

If the Bill becomes law, it will also make it easier for UK courts to depart from retained EU case law.

This is intended to reduce regulatory burdens and costs on UK businesses.

The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on 22 September 2022, received its second reading on 25 October 2022 and is due to proceed through the Commons Committee stage during November 2022. It will then have to be passed by the House of Lords – so there is still some way to go before it can become law.

Even if the Bill does proceed to legislation, given the current economic climate and political uncertainty, it seems unlikely to us that revised UK IP Law will be enacted soon. That being said, the UK is of course a common law system and IP law will continue to evolve as issues arise, through the courts, in the usual way.

The UK government states that it has committed to maintaining compliance with all its international obligations (including those contained within the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Withdrawal Agreement, and other international treaties).

The UK IPO have recently published an initial list of REUL for IP here. They say that they are going to update this information as their understanding develops and suggest that we therefore keep following this page for updates.

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