Brexit: A First Look At The UK's EU Withdrawal Bill's Implications For IP

The UK government has published its draft EU Withdrawal Bill. Although frequently dubbed the "Great Repeal Bill" it does not in fact seek to repeal all the European law that currently has force in the UK.  On the contrary, the aim of the Bill is to incorporate the vast majority of EU law into UK law, so that so far as possible the law in force in the UK the day after Brexit is the same as that the day before. 

So far as IP is concerned, whilst this might work for some aspects of European law, such as the IP Enforcement Directive, other laws, such as those that provide for European IP rights, including EU trade marks and Registered Community Designs, cannot simply be adopted into UK law and transitional provisions will need to be enacted.  The EU Withdrawal Bill gives the UK government wide powers to introduce such provisions but the scope and use of these powers is likely to be the subject of much opposition in Parliament as the Bill is debated.