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.

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