Commercially Connected Shorts - 6 November 2024

This week we look at:

• Windsor Framework: vote on continuation of rules applying to Northern Ireland
• UK tech review and AI opportunities action plan
• A new dawn for UK competition and consumer law: join our webinar
• The latest trends in global patents and trade secrets law

Windsor Framework: vote on continuation of rules applying to Northern Ireland

On 31 October 2024 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland gave notice to start the democratic consent process relating to Articles 5 – 10 of the Windsor Framework.

Under these Articles, Northern Ireland is aligned to certain EU single market and customs rules in order to avoid a hard land border in Ireland. Northern Ireland has to consent at periodic intervals to the continuation of these rules. Before the end of 2024, the Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on this issue for the first time.

If a consent resolution is passed with cross-community support, the rules will continue to apply for an 8 year period from 1 January 2025.

If a consent resolution is passed by a simple majority but without cross-community support, then the rules will continue to apply for a 4 year period from 1 January 2025. The UK government will also have to commission an independent review into the functioning of the Northern Ireland Protocol and the implications on social, economic and political life in Northern Ireland of any decision to continue or terminate alignment with the EU. Commentators are anticipating that this is the most likely outcome.

If a consent resolution is rejected, then the Articles would cease to apply at the end of 2026. At this point, unless alternative arrangements were agreed, the EU would apply the same rules to Northern Ireland as to Great Britain. This would create a hard land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Obviously all stakeholders would want to avoid this, so it is likely that an alternative solution would be agreed.

Businesses supplying goods into or through Northern Ireland should monitor the democratic consent process, as its outcome will impact on the customs and regulatory rules with which they have to comply.

UK tech review and AI opportunities action plan

On 30 October 2024, as part of its Budget announcements, the UK Government announced a cross-governmental review of barriers to the adoption of transformative technologies that could enhance innovation and productivity.

The review will be led by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser and the National Technology Adviser. It will focus on the sectors identified in the Government’s Industrial Strategy green paper (which we reported on last month), namely advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, creative industries, defence, digital and technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services. The recommendations from the review will help to inform the industrial strategy and sector plans that the Government will publish alongside the Spring Spending Review.

Also on 30 October 2024, the UK Government announced that it will shortly be publishing the AI Opportunities Action Plan “setting out a roadmap to capture the opportunities of AI to enhance growth and productivity and better deliver services for the public”. This was commissioned in July 2024, when it was announced that the issues to be addressed in the Action Plan include how the UK can:

• build a globally competitive AI sector
• adopt AI to improve growth and productivity and support delivery of government policy
• use AI in government to assist interaction with the state
• strengthen enablers of AI adoption, including data infrastructure, public procurement and regulatory reform

These initiatives reflect the Government’s aim to harness the benefits of technology, including AI, to facilitate UK economic growth and productivity. All businesses should monitor progress of these initiatives and be ready to capitalise on any advantages the initiatives may bring in relation to deployment and use of technological solutions within their organisations and supply chains.  

It has also been reported that an AI Bill, focused on regulation of AI foundation models, will be published before the end of the year, although there has been no official confirmation of this.

A new dawn for UK competition and consumer law: join our webinar

In September 2024 the UK Government provided a statement setting out a timetable for implementation of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC).

The key competition provisions, including greater investigative and enforcement powers, will take effect in less than three months. Businesses need to take action now to ensure they use this short window of time to be prepared.

The DMCC will also bring in a new competition law regime for digital markets, under which the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will have nine months to determine which businesses will be designated as having “significant market status” (SMS) and subject to the new regime. Once in force, the new regime will have a significant impact on digital markets. 

On the consumer law side, the Government has confirmed the key dates below:

April 2025 – commencement of the CMA’s new consumer enforcement regimes and aspects of the DMCC which replace the current unfair trading regulations of 2008. The new savings scheme rules will not commence before April 2025.

Spring 2026 – the new legal framework applying to subscription contracts will not be implemented earlier than this, giving businesses time to adjust their technical capabilities to comply.

You are very welcome to join us for our webinar, Legal update on the DMCC, between 14:00 and 14:40 on Tuesday 3 December 2024. We will provide a comprehensive legal update on the DMCC and the changes made to both competition and consumer law. To register to join this webinar, please use this link. A recording will be available following the 3^rd of December.

For more information on the changes that the DMCC will bring, see A new dawn for UK competition law | Eversheds Sutherland and A new dawn for UK consumer law | Eversheds Sutherland.

With thanks to our Competition and Consumer law teams.

The latest trends in global patents and trade secrets law

In what continues to be a time of change for patents and trade secrets with the ever-evolving world of AI, in this edition of Innovation Agenda, our global patents and trade secrets law newsletter, we delve into patentability of AI inventions and offer practical patenting insights and strategy when it comes to AI. We also uncover the risk of contributory patent infringement for suppliers and update on recent notable patent cases in Spain and Italy. This includes an interesting Spanish decision looking at the ever-slippery law of plausibility. On the trade secrets side, we look at the legality of reverse engineering in the UK and Europe, and use case statistics to identify trade secrets litigation trends which businesses can use to inform their data strategies. Finally, we highlight the tension between the EU Data Act and trade secrets and shine a spotlight on the NIS 2 Directive and what it means for European organizations.

Read the newsletter here: Innovation Agenda edition 2: the latest trends in global patents and trade secrets law.

With thanks to our Intellectual Property team.