Blog & News

How to protect against the theft of confidential business information

Keeping your business information confidential is key to protecting your valuable trade secrets. It minimises the risk of your competition finding out about your keys to success. And it stops…

The Chaaaampignons

In the IP world, it is not common to see rightsholders backing down when it comes to trade mark infringement. However, UEFA, one of football’s largest governing bodies, decided they…

Etsy – Take Down Challenges

Infringement of your intellectual property rights is now becoming much more achievable online as a result of technological developments and the evolution of social media platforms over the past decade.…

EPO: AI cannot be a designated inventor under the European Patent Convention

On 21 December 2021, the Legal Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) announced its decision in appeals J 8/20 and J 9/20 to refuse two patent applications…

Eric Clapton successfully sues 55 year old woman

Eric Clapton recently sued a 55 year old German woman for copyright infringement after she posted a listing online for an unofficial CD of a Clapton gig. The woman said…

Olympic endeavours

In what many might see as an ironic turn of events, the Chinese government has recently announced a crackdown on unauthorised use of the Olympics logo or competitors’ names in…

Data, data everywhere … now what?

1 January 2022 marked the one year anniversary of the end of the Brexit transition period. Perhaps predictably, one year on, some things are indeed different, but a lot of…

How long does copyright last?

  As IP lawyers, a question we frequently receive is, “how long does copyright last?”. It’s particularly relevant to copyright because, unlike other IP rights (such as registered designs or…

Three strikes and out for Chanel?

In 2017, Chanel – the French luxury fashion house – were quick to oppose Huawei’s EUTM application for the mark below (left image), based on the relative grounds for refusal.…

Duchess wins in Privacy and Copyright claim against Associated Newspapers

The Background The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, sued Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) for breach of privacy and copyright infringement after ANL had published extracts from a letter the Duchess…

A case of trade mark infringement – Equisafety v Battle, Hayward and Bowe

A recent case of trade mark infringement and passing off involved issues such as bad faith, descriptiveness and director’s liability, all of which were all decided in a one-day IPEC…

Is ABBA mania about to have its Waterloo?

Earlier this month, the iconic Swedish band ABBA sued a British tribute band, ABBA MANIA, for trade mark infringement in a New York court Abba is trying to prevent the…

Copyright and the importance of evidence of creation

The High Court recently heard a case where the claimant, Kelly-Marie Smith, alleged that the lyrics and melody in the chorus of a song she composed, ‘Can You Tell Me’,…

Simply the Best Lawsuit

You may remember that last month I wrote about Tina Turner selling her music rights to publishing company BMG for a cool $50m. Just a few weeks later and Tina…

Star Trek: Discovery and the battle for IP

Star Trek fans are left disappointed this November as all four seasons of Star Trek: Discovery have been pulled from Netflix. The streaming giant has lost the rights to the…

Google introduces feature enabling under 18s to remove their images from image search

Are you worried about your child’s images showing up on image searches? Google has published new guidance to enable children to have more control over their digital footprint. Minors and…

Exhaustion of IP Rights Post-Brexit

What is Exhaustion of IP Rights? If a rights holder, or someone with the consent of a rights holder, places goods in a specific territory then their right to take…

Trade Mark Revocation – How Sony Lost its “Vita” mark for non-use

As a trade mark owner, it is important that you make genuine use of your mark in the first 5 years after completing the registration procedure. A trade mark can…

EU judgment on bad faith in trade marks

If a competitor files a trade mark for a name you have been using, can you stop them even if you don’t actually have the trade mark yourself? A recent…

Nirvana win T-shirt copyright claim – for now…

Nirvana have been in the news a lot recently regarding their involvement in legal claims – most notoriously against the famous ‘Nevermind baby’ Spencer Elden – but they have also…

BYE BYE FACEBOOK, HELLO META

Facebook announced last month that it’s changing its name to Meta. However, the rebrand may involve certain challenges for the social media giant. A tech start-up based in Arizona, Meta…

Padron Pepper Pickle

Now known as a mainstay of sharing menus around the world, the humble Padron pepper has come a long way from its origins in the municipality of Padron in North-West…

Tina Turner sells her music rights

I have a special place in my heart for Tina Turner. The second concert I ever went to at the tender age of 8 was a Tina Turner concert –…

Pandemic start-ups… what you need to know about IP

One of the few positives that we can take from the pandemic is that it seemed to act as a catalyst for new businesses. If the world turning upside down…