2020 has been an active year for the Trade Mark Committee. We began the year with a committee meeting at Norton Rose Fulbright, with the fabulous views of the City that firm has. Ironically, I encouraged the group to “attend the next meeting in person” as we were due to have Darren Meale of Simmons & Simmons attend to demonstrate his trade mark comparison AI tool, Rocketeer™. Little did I know at that point that we wouldn’t be meeting in person, or indeed coming to the City at all, for the rest of the year.

The UK’s departure from the EU has of course continued to be of crucial importance to trade mark owners in industry, especially with the end of the transition period looming, and has taken up a significant amount of the committee’s time. Among the topics we have considered are addresses for service (see another article in this publication for more detail); EU trade mark (EUTM) to UK trade mark conversion and the potential for duplication as a result; and approaches that members will take to EUTM filing after the end of the transition period. It has been helpful to share our approaches and perspectives on these complex topics and I hope that the results have been of merit for preparing our respective organisations for the UK’s new relationship with the EU.