IP Disputes

Host liability – when can the ‘hosting defence’ be relied on

Are hosts liable for the actions of their users? The recent decision of Montres Breguet v Samsung confirms that, in some cases, they are. This decision provides useful guidance in…

Ed Sheeran wins in the High Court

Ed Sheeran has come out on top in his long-running copyright infringement dispute with Sam Chokri. The case goes back to 2017 when Chokri’s lawyers accused Sheeran’s best-selling song “Shape…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

Different Domain Dispute Decisions: it’s actually a trade mark dispute

Domain name disputes and trade marks go hand in hand. Generally trade mark rights are required in a mark identical or similar to the disputed domain in order to get…

Classic Copyright Cases – Whole Lotta Love

When it comes to copyright infringement in the music industry, one of the most famous examples is Spirit’s long-running claim against Led Zeppelin in relation to the songs Taurus and…

Different Domain Dispute Decisions

In this ad hoc series that I have just coined, I intend to provide you with an overview of domain name dispute decisions that, quite frankly are different to the…

Covid-19 plays a key role in transferring a claim from the High Court to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court

The general rule in High Court litigation in England and Wales is that the Court will order the losing party to pay the winning party’s legal costs.  However, the High…

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…

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.

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.

How Do You Defend A Claim For Copyright Infringement?

Copyright is a right to stop copying. If there is no copying, there is no copyright infringement. However, how do you defend a copyright claim?

Norwich Pharmacal orders: what, who, where

Often in the case of litigation and disputes it can be hard to identify an infringer. For example, the infringer may have set up an anonymous account and be using that to hide the infringing activities.

Lawyer troubles for Migos

Migos are suing Granderson for malpractice, citing his overall incompetence and his betrayal of their trust, notably by failing to declare that he also acts for Migos’ record label – a clear conflict of interest.

Beers, IP and chocolate

Beers, IP law, and chocolate. Three of my favourite things. Although when they come together, the results can be mixed, as S43 Brewery recently found out. The tale begins at…

Classic Copyright Cases – Bitter Sweet Symphony

Bitter Sweet Symphony needs no introduction. It is an undisputed classic from The Verve with an equally memorable music video. The song, written by Richard Ashcroft and released back in…

Help, I’ve Just Received A Cease And Desist Letter!

As intellectual property experts, we spend much of our time sending or responding to cease and desist letters. These letters are the first step in an intellectual property claim and…

Domain Dispute Don’ts

Briffa was recently involved in a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) which raised some novel points and ultimately resulted in a finding of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH) against the…

Bonzo Dog Dispute shows how emotions must not be brought to court

In November 2019 the 1960’s rock artists ‘The Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band’ won the right to carry on performing under that name. The story is, at its heart, a…