One consequence of the United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union is the questions it raises regarding European trademark protection.   The UK’s “Brexit” potentially will disrupt both the trademark registration process in the EU and registrants’ trademark rights in the UK.

For the immediate future, there is no change.  EU trademark registrations are protected in the UK by statute as if they were UK registrations.  As a result, owners of EU trademark registrations will continue to enjoy protection in the UK, either by a statutory order, or potentially by way of division from the EU trademark registrations, which might or might not require some action by the trademark owners.  If anything, EU trademark owners may need to file in the UK and claim seniority from the corresponding EU registrations, although this would be sometime in the future.

It is unclear at this stage whether EU applications filed after June 23, 2016 and before the “Brexit” is complete, or pending as of that date, will extend any protections to the UK.  However, going forward, trademark owners with (or planning to have) operations in the UK would be well advised to file separate UK and EU applications to register new marks.

For further information and assistance, contact Karen Frank at kfrank@coblentzlaw.com or Thomas Harvey at tharvey@coblentzlaw.com.

Last week the Department of Labor published a Final Rule updating the federal overtime regulations.  Most significantly, the new rule increases the minimum salary required to qualify for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional exemptions to $913 per week (or about $47,476 annually).  The new rule also creates a mechanism for automatically updating the minimum salary requirement every three years starting January 1, 2020.  These changes become effective on December 1, 2016.

This new rule revises federal requirements concerning these exemptions.  However, states may impose different and additional wage and hour requirements.  Thus, employers must be mindful of and compliant with both state and federal requirements.

California Employers

California has already increased its minimum salary requirement for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional exemptions to $41,600 per year, effective January 1, 2016.  Because the new federal standard is higher, employers who have current salaried exempt California employees whose salaries exceed the California standard ($41,600) but are less than the new federal standard ($47,476) will need to evaluate their options and make appropriate changes to comply with the new federal rule.  For example, employers could raise employee salaries to meet the new salary requirement and try to maintain their exempt status.  Alternatively, employers could reclassify those employees as non-exempt.

Employers should understand that any option could have significant implications for the business and their employees.  An individualized audit of the employer’s current policies and practices will help ensure that employees are properly classified and that any changes are consistent with California and federal law.

We are happy to advise California employers through these changes. To further discuss how these new regulations may affect your business, contact Stephen Lanctot at slanctot@coblentzlaw.com, Susan Jamison at sjamison@coblentzlaw.com, Charmaine Yu at cyu@coblentzlaw.com or Clifford Yin at cyin@coblentzlaw.com.