Blog & News

To register or not to register?

2020 has seen a flurry of large brands being accused of ripping off key designs and typically the victims are young designers who aren't aware of their rights.

Common Myths about Copyright

1.         You can freely use anything on the internet. It is a common misconception that anything published on the internet is in ‘the public domain’ and is therefore free for…

Classic Copyright Cases – Rod Stewart v Jorge Ben Jor

As London descends into Tier 4, I’m back to tell you about a Classic Copyright Case before the days of face masks, takeaway pints and Zoom calls. This time, we…

Father Christmas, his workshop and the risk of IP infringement

In recent months Santa Clause has received a large number of letters from requesting various toys for Christmas. However, if he’s not careful, it’s possible that in January he could…

Taylor Swift to re-record her hits – creative spark or act of spite?

Taylor Swift decides to re-record her five first albums entirely, thereby creating new Masters which she owns, and not Big Machine/Scooter Braun.

Classic Copyright Cases – Ghostbusters

Have a listen to I Want a New Drug and compare it to the Ghostbusters theme song – pretty similar wouldn’t you say?

Brexit and trade marks – a reminder

Brexit is back, actually it never left, and the end of the UK’s transition period (31 December 2020) is almost upon us

Only fools and IPEC proceedings

Many litigants want to have intellectual property (IP) arguments in the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC).  This can be for a number of reasons, but the fact that the IPEC offers a quick and cost effective venue to hear IP claims is the top of the list.

Patents for medication: a blessing and a curse

Patents are incredibly powerful intellectual property rights. In the pharmaceutical and medical industries in particular.

Use it or lose it – another cautionary tale from the EUIPO

Ferrari trade mark partially revoked for non-use - another cautionary tale from the EUIPO

Trade Mark Protection in China

For many years China was notorious for the lack of solid IP protection available to western brands. Squatters have been abusing the Chinese first-to-file trade mark system for years, obtaining…

Criminal Proceedings under The Trade Marks Act 1994 – When is this the right route?

Disputes can arise at a difficult time for the business, for the most part we are able to settle them on a commercial basis, either before or after the issue of civil proceedings.

AFTER THE PARODY, COMES AN INFRINGEMENT CLAIM

As the saying goes, there is a thin line between love and hate and equally a thin line between what business owners may consider trade mark/copyright infringement and harmless parody of their brand. 

Trade secrets – the black sheep in the IP family

The best way to exercise control over trade secrets and confidential information is to ensure that robust contracts are in place with all stakeholders who are involved in the creation, development or use of such information

Classic Copyright Cases – The Beatles

This month I’ll be talking about a dispute involving music goliaths The Beatles and rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry.

A new way of exploiting your Intellectual Property

Harry Styles fans who could not afford colourful cardigan he sported, set about knitting their own with the full support of pattern designer.

Black History Month and Intellectual Property

With Black History Month coming to a close we celebrate the excellent Black British artists who continue to mould and enhance our cultural landscape.

Patents, Poltergeists and Copyright Creeps

The spooky season is well and truly upon us. In this article, we discuss some common intellectual property issues that a designer preparing for Halloween might face.

Nominet Dispute Resolution Service

The people at Nominet are lovely, recently they reported that they take care of 10,829,109 “.uk” domains, but besides taking care of so many domains they also provide a relatively cost and time effective forum for .uk domain disputes.

Unregistered Design Rights in a post-Brexit world

In terms of Brexit, the UK is currently within the transition period until 31 December 2020 – and until this date all EU intellectual property laws and decisions of the CJEU will continue to apply. This will change however on 1 January 2021.

Copyright… are you sure it’s yours?

Copyright ownership is a funny thing, anyone who heard about the case of the monkey selfie can attest to that (long story short, a monkey took a picture of herself and earned a substantial payout).

5 top tips for navigating legal issues within music

Whether you are a musician, producer, DJ, artist manager or anything in between, as a professional within the music industry you will inevitably be faced with a number of legal issues throughout your career.

Classic Copyright Cases – Biz Markie

Here with another Classic Copyright Case. This time we are talking about hip hop legend Biz Markie and his 1991 album I Need a Haircut which changed the face of the hip hop industry.

Banksy and his uneasy relationship with IP

Banksy registered an image of a mural as a trade mark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, in an effort to ‘control’ his art, but a greeting card company were having none of it!