Following the United Kingdom’s (UK) exit from the European Union (EU), this now provides a new opportunity for trade mark owners to extend protection to Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
These jurisdictions are UK re-registration territories and require a certified copy of a UK registration to secure registered protection. Being re-registration territories, extending rights of UK trade marks is a much-simplified procedure with minimal formality and substantive examination.
What’s changed for EU trade mark holders?
Before Brexit, it was impossible to rely on a granted EU trade mark registration in United Kingdom re-registration jurisdictions. Although EU-registered trade mark rights automatically extended to the UK, the registration was not considered a UK registration.
However, since Brexit all live-granted EU trade marks have been cloned to form equivalent UK trade mark registrations.
Trade mark owners who had previously found that they could not protect their trade mark in Pacific Island re-registration territories because only EU trade mark protection was in place can now do so.
What are the benefits of protection in these countries?
If you are currently trading, or plan to trade, in Kiribati, Solomon Islands or Tuvalu, registered rights will be important to safeguard your brand and protect against counterfeiting. Furthermore, if there have been any changes to your mark in the UK, these changes will need to be updated in the relevant re-registration countries.
If you would like to know more about protecting your trade marks in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, or any Pacific Island for that matter, please contact your regular AJ Park contact or a team member below.
