Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

CJEU confirms territoriality: EU oppositions decided after Brexit cannot rely on UK unregistered trade marks; earlier rights must persist until EUIPO’s final decision; Withdrawal Agreement gives no carve‑out

Published on: 24 February 2026

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

The Court of Justice concluded that the General Court had improperly inferred that the EU‑UK Withdrawal Agreement contained express rules for opposition proceedings. Such an interpretation would have permitted earlier UK intellectual property rights to stretch across the EU after the transition period lapsed, yet that was not so, the Court of Justice held. It added: the General Court committed an error of law by failing properly to consider the legal effects of the transition period’s end and the territoriality principle of trade marks on the opposition disputed in this case. The ruling came after a decision in proceedings pursued by the Japanese company Nowhere Co Ltd against an individual’s 2015 application for a figurative sign depicting a small ape with the words ‘Ape Tees’ below. Nowhere opposed the application relying on three prior signs it had used in the UK without registration, each displaying a comparable as relied upon during the opposition proceedings at issue in the dispute there...

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