Brexit

Since leaving the EU on 31 January 2020, the UK’s transitional period ended on 31 December 2020; the UK is now separate from the EUIPO.

Patents
Brexit does not affect European patents. The European Patent Office is not an EU body and the UK continues to be an active member of the European Patent system. Boult Wade Tennant LLP continues to have full rights of audience before the European Patent Office.

Brexit and Boult Wade Tennant LLP
Boult Wade Tennant has made significant preparations for Brexit to ensure that you can continue to correspond with your usual advisors, who will ensure that your instructions are carried out before the EUIPO by qualified attorneys. We have three mechanisms in place to ensure a seamless service to our clients.

Our Madrid Office
We have established Boult Wade, S.L., a company which is majority owned by Boult Wade Tennant LLP, and established through a joint venture with local firm A.C. Legal. Senior lawyer Álvaro Cabeza is the Madrid-based Principal of Boult Wade, S.L. We have worked with Álvaro for many years and he is joined by Isabel Blanco Esguevillas who was part of our trade mark team in London and who has now returned to Madrid. Álvaro, Isabel, Xisco Ferrer, and the growing Madrid team, act before the EUIPO as well as before the Spanish National Trade Mark Office.

Our Berlin Office
In January 2019 we were delighted that Michael Maier, a German lawyer (rechtsanwalt), joined our partnership, after working in private practice and in-house for many years. We have arranged for new premises and staff in Berlin, where Michael, with his growing team including Alexander Stolz (rechtsanwalt), acts before the EUIPO, the German National Trade Mark office, the German Courts and also before the General Court (Luxembourg).

Our Frankfurt Office
As part of our expanding presence in Europe, we have opened a second office in Germany. The office is based in Frankfurt and is headed by experienced Partner Henning Erb. Henning is a German Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney and a European Trade Mark and Design Attorney. He is joined there by a team, comprising of high tech and electrical, engineering and designs attorneys, including Sebastian Stephan, as well as trade mark and domain name specialists, all of whom advise clients on complex, often multi-jurisdictional matters relating to IP issues.

Our London, Cambridge and Reading Offices
For our teams in the UK it is business as usual and they continue to provide high quality, market leading services to our clients across trade marks, designs and patents.

Our reputation precedes us and we feel very privileged in the fact that for the past 15 years, we have been ranked in tier one for both patent and trade mark prosecution in the UK by Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) and The Legal 500, and have won awards from reputable and trusted professional organisations on numerous occasions. We are also consistently ranked in the top band by other leading publications such as Chambers and Partners, Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) 1000 and World Trademark Review (WTR) 1000. The firm’s quality provision of services to clients, and our integrity is at the core of our working culture.

We are completely client focussed and pride ourselves in giving specific, proactive advice, which is finely tuned to our clients’ business needs. We look forward to expanding our services to our existing and future clients with our offices in Spain and Germany.

Next Steps
All the experience of the teams in the UK is available to our colleagues in the Berlin, Frankfurt and Madrid offices, which all stand before the EUIPO and can act as appropriate, bringing their own experience and insight, in relation to your EU Trade Marks (EUTM) or Registered Community Designs (RCD) applications and registrations.