Brexit Creates Long-Term Uncertainty in U.K. Trademark Law

The U.K.'s departure from the European Union frees it from parts of the bloc’s trademark law that British courts have viewed skeptically, attorneys say.

EU laws that provide guardrails for national statutes, and EU court precedents that for decades have created the binding case law guiding trademark conflicts, won’t apply in the U.K. British judges may continue to look to EU case law, but there are parts of trademark law where they have chafed at EU policy. That makes it tough to predict how U.K. courts will act.

The disruption of legal precedent is “deeply unsettling,” trademark attorney Daniel Selmi ...