Intellectual Property

Can you copyright a band name?

Here is a question that every aspiring musician asks themselves at one point or another, as did I when sitting on my drum throne (yes, us drummers are musicians too)…

Slim pickings in NAH v KBF

Sticking with the food theme of my recent blog posts, NAH, a retailer of sauces and other food items, applied for summary judgment against KBF, a company which markets foods…

Changes to the intellectual property laws in Russia and what this means for you

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing economic sanctions imposed against Russia have meant that any business activity relating to these markets has been impacted in several ways. In…

How To Protect My Clothing Designs

With the rise of fast fashion, social media and online shopping, more than ever, fashion designers are facing issues trying to protect their work from copycats. It can be daunting…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Cricket hits a six in the licensing market

Cricket has changed over the years; it was once perceived as a slow and drawn out game lacking entertainment and excitement. However, fast forward on a couple of decades from…

A tale of passing off

The recent Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court case of Stone v Wenman [2021] EWHC 2546 (IPEC) tells a cautionary tale of passing off and should act as a useful precedent…

Spears vs Spears

You may have noticed that Britney Spears’ name is popping up in the news quite a bit in recent times due to family issues, let alone the recent release of…

Copyright infringement on social media

Uploading, streaming, watching and sharing content across social media platforms has never been easier. There are roughly 1 billion active users on both Instagram and Tik Tok every month and…

A brief guide on NFTs and how to protect yourself

NFTs – what does it mean? The acronym NFTs stands for non-fungible tokens , which can be described as one of a kind digital artistic asset (such as drawings, videos,…

Domain Disputes: don’t go there if you are late

The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a dispute mechanism designed to resolve claims relating to domain names. It offers a cost effective and quick way to adjudicate…

Fashion and IP: back to basics

What does it take to become to build a successful fashion brand and succeed as a designer? There are, no doubt, numerous factors in play, but here at Briffa we…

Chris Brown lands himself in hot water for Sampling Red Rat’s dancehall track “Tight Up Skirt.”

Sampling music is widespread in the music industry, particularly in the RnB and Hip Hop genres. Newer artists/producers frequently sample sound recording and/or the composition. Sampling music, when done correctly,…

Classic Copyright Cases – George Harrison

It’s me again with another Classic Copyright Case. As I write, almost all restrictions in England have been lifted and we step into an uncertain new world – although ordering…