Intellectual Property UK

  • March 13, 2024

    Security Tech Biz Claims $12.5M For 'Obsolete' CCTV Software

    A Taiwanese security technology company has countersued an AI video analytics business for $12.5 million over a deal to buy the rights to CCTV-analyzing technology, arguing that the software it bought was "near obsolete."

  • March 13, 2024

    Boston Scientific Gets Heart Valve Patent On Appeal

    Boston Scientific has convinced European officials to grant it a patent over a stent valve based on an amendment that specified the use of a biomedical textile, which finally meant the invention was new.

  • March 13, 2024

    EU Parliament Overwhelmingly Passes Landmark AI Law

    European Union lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday in favor of a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence law, in a bid to help facilitate innovation while safeguarding the bloc's fundamental rights.

  • March 12, 2024

    Rihanna Instagram Ruling A Warning Shot For Brand Collabs

    Puma's delay in securing design rights for one of its shoes after then-creative director Rihanna posted images showing off the sneakers poses a warning for brands to consider intellectual property protections prior to striking a deal with famous collaborators.

  • March 12, 2024

    Ericsson Fights To Fend Off Lenovo FRAND Battle In UK

    Ericsson asked a London court on Tuesday to reject Lenovo's request for fair rates for the use of each other's patents to be set in the U.K., arguing that the Chinese tech giant was forum shopping to disturb ongoing proceedings in the U.S.

  • March 12, 2024

    Volvo Hits The Brakes On Polish Car Co.'s 'Vosco' TM

    Volvo has persuaded European intellectual property officials to reject a bid by a Polish car manufacturer to get trademark protection for "Vosco Automotive" because it would exploit the Swedish auto giant's renown.

  • March 12, 2024

    'Clearer Than Ever' That Wright Is Not Satoshi, Developers Say

    Lawyers for developers seeking to prove that Craig Wright is not the pseudonymous inventor of bitcoin told the High Court that it is "clearer than ever" that the Australian computer scientist is not Satoshi Nakamoto in closing arguments on Tuesday.

  • March 12, 2024

    Tequila Regulator Wins Appeal Over 'Genquila' Wine TM

    The industry regulator for tequila has convinced European officials to nix a trademark for "Dutch Genquila" that had been granted for wine products, after demonstrating that buyers would still think of the Mexican spirits.

  • March 12, 2024

    Motorbike Apparel Biz Sues Retailers For Design Infringement

    A motorcycle clothing company has sued several retailers for £50,000 ($63,800) in a London court for allegedly infringing its design rights over multiple protective apparel styles.

  • March 12, 2024

    Motorola Keeps Dual-Screen Phone Patent Hopes Alive

    Motorola has persuaded U.K. patent officials to move forward with its dual-screen smartphone patent bid after proving that the design does not breach patentability rules blocking protections over computer programs.

  • March 11, 2024

    Woodsford Affiliate Prevails In Fee Feud With SF Firm

    An affiliate of British litigation funder Woodsford has secured a $1.8 million arbital award and $1.2 million in interest from a San Francisco law firm following the 2019 settlement of a lawsuit against Google, a Delaware federal judge confirmed Monday.

  • March 11, 2024

    Nuvei Unit Sues Pay Group Over Failed Domain Name Deal

    A Nuvei Group subsidiary has sued several payments companies and their bosses for allegedly failing to use the company's payments technology, despite signing a deal promising to do so in return for a website domain.

  • March 11, 2024

    EasyGroup Fights Tefal's Bid To Revoke Its 'Easy' TMs

    EasyGroup has hit back at Tefal's claim that its trademarks are invalid and therefore cannot be infringed in an ongoing battle over the French cookware maker's "Easy Fry" air fryers.

  • March 11, 2024

    Bacardi Loses EU Appeal Over Bartending App Name TM

    European officials have rejected a bid by Bacardi to register "Freepour," the name of an app for bartenders, after finding that a French telecommunications giant had already cornered the market for the word "Free."

  • March 11, 2024

    A Timeline Of The Unified Patent Court

    After a decade of setbacks and uncertainty, the "pie in the sky" goal of creating a centralized European patent court is now a reality. Law360 looks back here over the critical chapters in the story of the Unified Patent Court.

  • March 11, 2024

    United Airlines Slogan Lands Poorly With European IP Office

    The intellectual property office of the European Union has thrown out an attempt by United Airlines to register a trademark for its slogan "Good Leads The Way," after an appellate panel found that consumers would not automatically link the phrase with air travel.

  • March 11, 2024

    Reed Smith Guides Nanoco's £33M Buyback, After Litigation

    Nanoco said on Monday that it will repurchase shares worth £33 million ($42 million) from investors after the nanotechnology company won a $150 million windfall from a Texas patent infringement lawsuit against South Korean electronics giant Samsung.

  • March 08, 2024

    Shein Accused Of Filching Rivals' Protected Shoe Designs

    A shoe retailer and its parent are accusing Shein of infringing their copyrights and protected designs by selling 45 styles of footwear which are "substantial reproductions" of the companies' blueprints.

  • March 08, 2024

    EasyGroup Denies Volkswagen's IP Claims Over EV Charging Site

    EasyGroup Ltd. has disputed Volkswagen's claim that a website for electric-vehicle charging stations wrongly used a VW vehicle logo, among other issues, asserting that EasyGroup wasn't responsible for the site and had filed an "easyCharging" trademark in good faith.

  • March 08, 2024

    NFT Platform Beats Rival's 'HyperNFT' TM

    An NFT platform has convinced U.K. intellectual property officials to scrap a rival's trademark for "HyperNFT," finding that consumers were likely to believe that they belonged to the same company.

  • March 08, 2024

    Danish Soccer League Trims European Super League TMs

    Denmark's highest soccer league has successfully contested a trademark application from the European Super League in several classes after the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled that it would take unfair advantage of the Nordic league's trademark's reputation.

  • March 08, 2024

    IP Law Needs Tinkering In The Metaverse, IPO Report Finds

    The rise of the metaverse will require IP laws in the U.K. to be redrawn and upgraded, according to a report commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office.

  • March 08, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Barclays initiate legal proceedings against top Russian private bank JSC Alfa-Bank; Lex Greensill, founder of the collapsed Greensill Capital, suing the U.K.'s Department for Business and Trade; Wikipedia's parent company hit with a libel claim; and a sports journalism teacher filing a data protection claim against Manchester United FC. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • March 08, 2024

    4 Questions For Taylor Wessing's Mark Owen

    Mark Owen had never heard of intellectual property law before he took his second seat at Clifford Chance LLP, where he realized that he loved everything about it. Here, Owen talks to Law360 about how he got into IP law, how he expects artificial intelligence to affect the practice and what cases he's watching.

  • March 07, 2024

    RTL Gets Subscription Management Patent Axed

    German media giant RTL has convinced European officials to nix a patent for managing usernames and passwords across multiple subscription services because the invention was obvious.

Expert Analysis

  • Coordinating Patent Strategies Across PTAB And EPO

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    The positions, arguments and prior art raised in U.S. post-grant proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may influence European Patent Office oppositions involving counterpart cases. Understanding the procedural similarities and differences between the two jurisdictions is key, says Drew Schulte of Haley Guiliano LLP.

  • New EU Patent Guidelines May Affect Companies' AI Strategy

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    As compared to the European Patent Office’s guidelines for artificial intelligence and machine learning — which take effect on Thursday — the U.S. eligibility framework may prove to be more favorable to innovators, say Jennifer Maisel and Eric Blatt of Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck PC​​​​​​​.

  • Intellectual Property Caught In US-China Trade Crossfire

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    Earlier this year, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products as a response to China’s trade practices concerning technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation. The U.S.-Chinese trade war highlights the need to approach investments in China differently, taking a broad view of intellectual assets and looking beyond basic legal protection, says Holly White, a consultant at Rouse & Co.

  • Patent Eligibility Assessments: US Approach Vs. UK Approach

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    Techniques used to address questions of obviousness in the U.K. may prove useful to practitioners addressing questions of patent eligibility in the U.S., say Christopher Carroll and Charles Larsen of White & Case LLP.

  • Surveying The CRISPR Patent War

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    Following this week’s oral argument at the Federal Circuit in University of California v. Broad Institute, there has been a surge of interest in the long-running CRISPR patent dispute. There are battles raging on multiple fronts, particularly in Europe, with several more on deck in the U.S., and maybe even in China, says Michael Stramiello of Paul Hastings LLP.

  • UK Patent Ruling Sharpens Contrast With US Practice

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    The U.K. Court of Appeal's decision last month in Regeneron v. Kymab is significant because it aligns the U.K.’s approach to the assessment of insufficiency with that of the European Patent Office. It also highlights, for U.S. companies, the stricter standard to which patent specifications are subject in Europe, say Edward Kelly and Regina Sam Penti of Ropes & Gray LLP.

  • IP Considerations For UK Open Banking App Developers

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    Since January of this year, consumer-facing banks in the U.K. have been required to make customers' banking data available to authorized third parties in a standardized format. As competition between open banking app developers increases, intellectual property rights will become a key legal tool, say Rajvinder Jagdev and Peter Damerell of Powell Gilbert LLP.

  • The Case For Early Mediation Or Arbitration In IP Disputes

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    Alternative dispute resolution is one of the best ways to resolve disputes involving patents, copyright, trademark, trade secrets and other intellectual property issues. While not every situation lends itself to ADR, it is more accessible than many parties assume, says Jerry Cohen of Burns & Levinson LLP.

  • International Arbitration In 2018: A Year Of Rule Revisions

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    Though still in its relative infancy, 2018 is shaping up to be a year of arbitral institution rule updates. Neil Newing and Ryan Cable of Signature Litigation LLP explore some of the more innovative and trending rule changes expected or predicted this year.

  • A Look At Chemical Supplemental Examination Requests

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    If used strategically, supplemental examination at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can provide a powerful tool for chemical patent owners to add to their armamentarium of options for Orange Book-listed patents when conducting a due diligence analysis of their patent estate prior to Orange Book listing, say attorneys with Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.

  • Cloud-Based Patent Claims — And How Providers Can Help

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    Cloud customers may be exposed to liability for open source technologies that are buried deep within their providers’ offerings. In-house legal teams and developers need to be aware of the risk of patent litigation and the extent to which cloud providers can help mitigate these risks, says R. Paul Zeineddin of Zeineddin PLLC.

  • Comparing EU And US Standard-Essential Patent Guidance

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    The European Commission's long-awaited guidance on litigating and licensing standard-essential patents clarifies what conduct may insulate an SEP owner from abuse claims under competition law, in sharp contrast to the U.S., where the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice have declined to adopt any views on the subject, say Edward Kelly and Regina Sam Penti of Ropes & Gray LLP.

  • Strategic Considerations In Selecting Emergency Arbitration

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    In recent years, all of the major arbitral institutions have introduced an emergency arbitration procedure, yet studies suggest that parties rarely avail themselves of emergency arbitration and instead turn to local courts in times of crisis. Attorneys with Kirkland & Ellis LLP explore several considerations when determining where to pursue emergency relief.

  • Strategies For Protecting Biotechnology In Brazil And China

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    Brazil and China have taken important steps to become significant contributors to the future success of the bioeconomy. Understanding options for quickly procuring and challenging patents in Brazil and China can be key for companies looking to expand their bioeconomy investments outside the U.S. and Europe, say attorneys with Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC.

  • How The FTC Has Erred On Innovation Policy Issues

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    Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, recently delivered a sobering attack on the agency, noting that it and other antitrust agencies have “lost sight of core antitrust principles.” From such a highly competent federal official who is also a recognized legal scholar, this critique deserves our full attention, says David Teece, chairman of Berkeley Research Group LLC.

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