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The Patents County Court (PCC) has made clear that when a claimant chooses it as the venue to enforce its intellectual property rights, it should not expect the court to depart from the cost cap that applies if successful. That is so even if it produces an...
Supreme Court Introduce Bite for Late Patent Registrations (Shutz (UK) Ltd v Weir (UK) Ltd) - Part 2
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The Supreme Court has been considering s68 Patents Act 1977 which provide costs sanctions in infringement actions where certain dealings are not registered on the Patents Register. (I have already commented on the Supreme Court’s deliberations on the...
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Sometimes the most ordinary and common place of words can cause lawyers the most problems. In this recently reported case, the Courts were wrestling with what it means to "make" a patented product in the recent decision pursuant to s60 Patents Act...
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It was 50 years ago last year that The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do, to an unsuspecting public. It was the start of a golden era for British pop music as The Beatles in the years that followed took over the world, with other iconic bands...
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The Patents County Court was established with a prime objective of providing access to justice for SMEs in simpler intellectual property cases. Key to achieving this are the cost caps that apply, so allowing parties to litigate in the knowledge that the...
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In a case which illustrates why intellectual property lawyers urge SMEs to make sure they consider the question of intellectual property rights at the start of every project, Velvet Underground have lost a copyright claim in the US designed to provide them...
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In a case which neatly illustrates the competing tensions created by a patent system, and in one of the largest patent disputes yet seen, a US jury has found for Apple in its US lawsuit that Samsung's Galaxy infringes Apples patents protecting the...
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The ECJ has been considering what copyrights exist in the fixture lists published each season for the football English and Scottish leagues. The basic question referred to the ECJ by the Court of Appeal was whether the considerable judgement, skill and...
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(Don't Stop Believing...) I blogged previously on how the Patents County Court (PCC) was finding its feet in the Westwood v Knight case . In Comic Enterprises Ltd v Twentieth Century Fox Corp, the PCC had to wrestle...
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At the end of January 2012 the Court of Appeal handed down judgement in the case of Specsavers v ASDA. The appeal was borne out of proceedings instigated by Specsavers against ASDA for trade mark infringement and passing off. The Facts The case...
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With the development of and ever increasing demand for smart phones and the technology that they harness, it is unsurprising that these devices have spawned a plethora of litigation throughout the world. The companies which own the Intellectual Property that...
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So what could possibly be newsworthy in 2 global superstars applying to register their latest brand, Blue Ivy, at the US Patent and Trademark Office? The importance and value of celebrities protecting their brands is now well understood. I have even...
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Many of us have suspected it for years. But it took the man behind Alan Partridge to persuade the Court of Appeal to confirm that confidential information is indeed intellectual property. The case was part of the continuing fallout from the News of the...
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The producers of X Factor revealed at the start of this month that Simco Ltd was withdrawing its application to register a trade mark for the name of girl group Rhythmix. (Simco Ltd is another of Simon Cowell's companies). This followed...
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With another successful series of ‘Dragons Den’ (Series 9 BBC 2) now complete, I do think about what there is left to be invented, mainly so I can retire early… But, even if I could think of a completely novel idea (which I am still...
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On July 27 2011, judgement was handed down by the Supreme Court in the case of Lucasfilm Limited (and others) v Andrew Ainsworth (and another). That judgement marked a further stage in a lengthy legal battle which had spanned two continents and six years of...
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In a US case reported this week, but one typical of the issues raised regularly within the UK, Marvel Comics have defeated the estate of an employee who claimed that he owned the copyright in the work he carried out. As those works included Spiderman,...
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In the first ruling of its kind BT has been ordered to block access to a website accused of ‘flagrant’ copyright infringement. The case which was brought by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) (whose members include film...
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It was reported this week that Bucks Fizz have been arguing over the right to use the mark "Bucks Fizz", in a dispute that is typical of arguments over intellectual property rights that can occur when the owners of a business fall out. Bucks Fizz...
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Following on from my recent Fashion Design and Imitation: Flattery or Theft? blog , Westwood v Knight [2011] EWPCC 8, 22 March 2011 was the first case to be heard under the new procedural regime in the Patents County Court which...
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Coco Chanel famously said that "imitation is the highest form of flattery". Does this suggest that the fashion industry takes a more relaxed attitude towards intellectual property rights than other sectors? A current debate taking pace in...
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After a 2 year investigation, UKTV’s application to register the trade mark “Dave” has been rejected by the EU’s Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (“OHIM”). The TV channel applied to register the name of the...
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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...Andrew Ainsworth and his business Shepperton Design Studios produced storm trooper helmets, armour and Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing helmet for Star Wars. Ainsworth decided to sell imitation helmets and other...
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Patents protect an innovative technical or mechanical process that has been developed. A classic example is the Dyson vacuum cleaner, which when it was introduced in the 1990s, was highly innovative in the way it worked. To protect the innovation, you must...
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