The REUL (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 - Third Update

Jane Lambert

 

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill received royal assent on 29 June 2023 and is now law (see Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 ("REUL")),   I outlined the bill in Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill on 22 Oct 2022 and tracked its progress in my first and second updates on 6 Dec 2022 and 5 Feb 2023 respectively.

As I said in How Brexit has Changed IP Law on 17 Jan 2022, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 1988 incorporated  Council regulations and general principles of European law into the laws of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland at 23|:00 from 31 Dec 2020 when EU law ceased to apply directly to the UK.  The incorporated principles entrenched EU legislation and judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union into domestic law necessitating special procedures to depart from them.  REUL abolishes the entrenched status of retained EU Law and much of the implementing legislation.

Clause 1 (1) of the Bill, as introduced, would have revoked all "EU-derived subordinate legislation" and "retained direct EU legislation" on 31 Dec 2023.  "EU-derived subordinate legislation" was essentially secondary legislation made under s.2 (2) of, the European Communities Act 1972.  S.1 (1) of the Act limits the revocation to the legislation listed in Sched 1 of the Acr. Part 1 of that schedule lists subordinate legislation and Part 2 retained direct EU legislation.

In Retained EU law for intellectual property, the Intellectual Property Office has listed legislation which is to be revoked  at the end of this year:

• The Artist’s Resale Right (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2792) 
• The Community Designs (Fees) Rules 2002 (SI 2002/2942) 
• Council Decision of 22 December 1994 on the extension of the legal protection of topographies of semiconductor products to persons from a Member of the World Trade Organization (94/824/EC) 
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002 of 21 October 2002, and  
• Regulation (EU) No 386/2012 of 19 April 2012.

The following statutory instruments will take effect from 1 Jan 2024:

• The Design Right, Artist’s Resale Right and Copyright (Amendment) Regulations 2023 and
• The Intellectual Property (Exhaustion of Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

The Unified Patent Court's First Cases

Helsinki

Author Fileri Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed Source Wik (Wikipedia Commons

Jane Lambert

The Unified Patent Court opened its doors on 1 June 2023 (see The Unified Patent Court Opens Today 1 June 2023).  There have already been proceedings in both of the Central Divisions of the Court of First Instance in Paris and Munich as well as the local divisions in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Helsinki, Milan, Munich and The Hague. There have also been hearings.

One of those hearings was in Helsinki where the court was scheduled to hear an application by the claimant for provisional measures and a preliminary objection from the defendant in an action that the Swiss company AIM Sport Vision AG has brought against Supponor Oy of Finland and others on 21 Sept 2023 (see Upcoming hearing at the UPC Local Division Helsinki posted on 12 Sept 2023).  Readers will recall that AIM Sport Vision AG sued Suppronor Oy in London earlier this year alleging infringement of  EP 3 295 663 B1.   I commented on the trial in Patents - AIM Sport Vision v Supponor on 5 Sept 2023.  According to the presiding judge's order of 28 Aug 2023, AIM Sport Vision complains of infringement of the same patent.

Occado and AutoStore were also against each other in London earlier in the year  (see Autostore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc and others [2023] EWHC 716 (Pat) (30 March 2023).  I discussed the action in Patents - AutoStore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc on 16 April 2023 in NIPC Law. Proceedings had been issued by Occado against AutoStore in Milan but these appear to have settled (see the minute of order of 11 Sept 2023).

The proceedings that have taken place so far have ranged from applications for orders for the preservation of evidence to directions for the conduct of the litigations.  They have been conducted in Dutch and Italian as well as English, French and German,  Anyone wishing to read those decisions will find them at "Decisions and Orders" on the Unified Patent Court website,

Readers wishing to discuss this topic may call me on +44 (0)20 7494 5252 during normal office hours or message me through my contact page at all other times.