Intellectual Property UK

  • April 10, 2024

    Door Handle Maker Grips Design Victory On Appeal

    A Czech manufacturer won its appeal Wednesday to reinstate design protections for a door handle after a European court ruled that differences in the angles of the grip and neck were significant enough to merit protection.

  • April 10, 2024

    EUIPO Wrongly Skimmed Dairy Biz's 'Rebell' TM, Court Says

    A European Union court has restored a dairy company's "Rebell" protection, ruling on Wednesday that intellectual property officials failed to explain why they narrowed the scope of the trademark for lack of use amid a beef company's protests.

  • April 09, 2024

    Chinese Co. Wants To Nix Abbott's 3D TM For Diabetes Tech

    A group of Chinese companies hit back at Abbott's claims that they copied a 3D trademark for a continuous glucose monitoring device, arguing that the product's features shouldn't be protected in the first place.

  • April 09, 2024

    Canine Toilet Biz City Doggo Bites Back At Rival's TM Claim

    A company that makes grass toilets for dogs has hit back at its competitor, after the rival business accused it of ripping off its natural pee patch featured on the BBC TV show "Dragons' Den."

  • April 16, 2024

    Freeths Hires Murgitroyd Atty As Patents Director

    Freeths LLP has appointed a new director of patents with more than 16 years of experience advising clients such as Nokia and Rolls-Royce, marking the latest addition to the firm's growth strategy.

  • April 09, 2024

    Kigen, Thales Settle Dispute Over SIM Card Standard Patent

    A U.K. tech company and a subsidiary of French electronic giant Thales Group have settled their dispute over fair licensing terms for standard-essential technology used to remotely activate SIM cards in mobile phones.

  • April 09, 2024

    Medical Device Maker Fights Kidney Stone Tech Patent Claim

    A U.K. medical device maker has denied that its bladder stone-removing technology infringes a Chinese rival's patent for a similar-looking product, saying it will continue to put its devices on the market.

  • April 09, 2024

    Gaming Co. Fires Back In 'Burning Hot' TM Clash With Rival

    A casino gaming business has hit back at a challenge to the validity of its "Mini Burning Hot" trademark, arguing that its rival is trying to relitigate earlier proceedings and alleging that the competitor's U.K. trademark protections are invalid.

  • April 08, 2024

    Nivea Wins 'KiiLTO' TM Spat Over Reputational Risks

    Nivea brand owner Beiersdorf on Monday successfully opposed a Finnish chemical products manufacturer's trademark "KiiLTO Airi" after European officials found the mark likely to "tarnish" the skincare brand's reputation.

  • April 08, 2024

    Netherlands Top Court Says No Copyright In Balloon Filler

    The Netherlands' top court rejected a product developer's bid to copyright its water balloon filler, "Bunch-O-Balloons," after finding that most of the inventor's decisions were technical rather than spurred by creativity.

  • April 08, 2024

    Ferrero Tastes Defeat In Nutella TM Opposition

    Ferrero can't stop a man from registering a trademark for "Mozartella" after European officials ruled that buyers wouldn't confuse it with the Nutella chocolate brand, even though he used it to market chocolate spreads.

  • April 08, 2024

    Packaging Biz Seals EPO Win In Paper-Coating Patent Feud

    A packaging company has fought off a rival's challenge to its patent for oil-resistant paper after persuading a European Patent Office appeals panel that the makeup of the binding material for its compound was inventive.

  • April 08, 2024

    Biotech Biz Sensorion Raises €15M From Existing Investors

    French biotech firm Sensorion SA said Monday that it has raised €15 million ($16.2 million) through a share offering to existing institutional investors to fund its research and development until the end of 2025.

  • April 05, 2024

    Bayer Can't Block Generic Xarelto, And Has Patent Nixed

    Bayer can't stop a French generic-drug maker from putting a cheaper version of its blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto on pharmacy shelves, after a French court nixed its dosage patent.

  • April 05, 2024

    Edwards Gets EPO To Nix Abbott Unit's Heart Valve Patent

    Edwards Lifesciences has persuaded a European Patent Office appeals panel to block an Abbott unit's prosthetic heart valve patent application, after proving that the design was not new.

  • April 05, 2024

    Amazon Cloud Computing Patent Powered Down On Appeal

    Amazon has lost its fight to patent a method of pre-launching cloud computing services, with a European patent authority appeals board concluding that the invention did not take an inventive step beyond existing technology.

  • April 05, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 05, 2024

    Counterfeiters Flourish In Wake Of COVID, IP Body Says

    The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a global uptick in the trade of counterfeit goods, beginning with fake healthcare products but spreading to other areas of trade as virtually all shopping moved online, a new report found Friday.

  • April 05, 2024

    3 Questions For Mishcon's David Rose And Jeremy Hertzog

    Clients look for many skills in intellectual property lawyers, but scientific expertise is not necessarily one of them, according to David Rose of Mishcon de Reya. Here, Rose and his colleague Jeremy Hertzog talk IP with Law360.

  • April 04, 2024

    Getty Says Stability AI Plays 'Active Role' In Making AI Images

    Stock images giant Getty Images has clapped back at the makers of the popular Stable Diffusion software in the companies' U.K. copyright dispute, saying Stability AI cannot claim that any potentially infringing image the generative AI model creates is due to the user's input alone.

  • April 04, 2024

    Henkel Loses Bid To Sweep Away Rival's Cleaning TM

    A Romanian cleaning product company has won its trademark appeal for its "Clinium" logo, after a European appellate board found that buyers would not conflate the sign with German rival Henkel's "Clin" trademark.

  • April 04, 2024

    Juul Can't Dodge UPC Vape Feud Over Rival's Admin Error

    Juul can't dash a challenge to five of its vaping patents even though its rival NJOY listed the wrong company in its initial papers, an appeals panel has said, giving the competing company the green light to tweak its claim.

  • April 04, 2024

    Velcro-Selling Co. Sues Rival Over Amazon Complaints

    A Northern Irish Velcro product distributor has accused a rival of spreading false rumors about its goods and putting the company in Amazon's bad books by returning several purchases and claiming they were "inauthentic."

  • April 04, 2024

    Gambling Biz Says Rival, Ex-Employees Copied Game Code

    An online gambling company has sued two former members of staff and its rival for allegedly plagiarizing copyrighted source code for its "Slingo" online betting game to produce several competing products.

  • April 03, 2024

    Genmab Builds Oncology Portfolio With $1.8B Deal

    Danish biotechnology company Genmab announced Wednesday that it would acquire private cancer drugmaker ProfoundBio for $1.8 billion in cash, a move set to beef up Genmab's oncology portfolio and position the company as a competitor to other biotech companies that have made similar deals in the antibody drug conjugate space in recent months.

Expert Analysis

  • 10 Things To Know About The Coming EU Unified Patent Court

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    When the Unified Patent Court opens next year, it will represent a paradigm shift for adversarial patent proceedings in Europe, and practitioners should familiarize themselves now with this new, centralized litigation system, say Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller and Thomas Kronberger at Grünecker.

  • 7 Key Takeaways For Litigating Willful Patent Infringement

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    Brian Nolan and Manuel Velez at Mayer Brown explore the impact of the Federal Circuit's 2021 SRI International v. Cisco Systems decision, and six other areas recent parties have focused on when litigating willful infringement in the latest case law.

  • Trademark Ruling Brings Clarity To Product Defect Liability

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    The recent Court of Justice of the EU ruling in Fennia v. Philips, its first concerning the trademark aspect of producer liability in Article 3(1) of Directive 85/374, brings greater clarity to the question of compensation in the event of a claim for defective products, say Radboud Ribbert and Thomas van Weeren at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Appointments Shape EU Unified Patent Court Before Launch

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    A series of judiciary appointments at the EU Unified Patent Court help put the court on track for its April opening, while also reflecting a patent-friendly enforcement system, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 5 Considerations In Preparing For EU's New Patent System

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    With the upcoming implementation of the unitary patent and Unified Patent Court, Europe gets closer to its long-term goal of one EU patent that can be enforced in one court, and non-EU patent owners and applicants will have strategic decisions to make, say Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller and Thomas Kronberger at Grünecker.

  • Reexamining Negative Limitations After Novartis Patent Ruling

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    The Federal Circuit's decision and denial of rehearing in Novartis v. Accord has created exacting standards that must be met in order for negative limitations in patent claims to satisfy the written description requirement, but whether the dissent is correct that the majority opinion heightened the standard is an arguable point, say Jonathan Fitzgerald and Jaime Choi at Snell & Wilmer.

  • UK Courts' 3rd-Party Disclosure Rule Sets Global Precedent

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    The quiet change about to take place in the English Civil Procedure Rules, enabling U.K. courts to require pre-action disclosure of information from overseas third parties, is uncharted territory and will have profound implications for any organization that handles assets on behalf of a party, says Simon Bushell at Seladore Legal.

  • Zara TM Ruling Shows Prefiling Clearance Is Always Advisable

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    The recent Trade Mark Tribunal decision regarding Zara and House of Zana demonstrates the importance of conducting prefiling clearance investigations, so that where opposition may be anticipated, a strategy can be put in place, says Melanie Harvey at Birketts.

  • Dutch Merger May Promote Behavioral Remedies Across EU

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    A Dutch tribunal's recent clearing of the Sanoma-Iddink deal might further encourage merging parties in the EU to offer — and government agencies to accept — behavioral remedies, which was rarer when more emphasis was put on divestments, says Robert Hardy at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How Will UK Address AI Patent Infringement?

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    As artificial intelligence-related patent litigation activity inevitably approaches, a review of U.K. principles of direct and indirect liability offers insight into how courts may address questions involving cloud-based technology and arguments related to training AI models, say Alexander Korenberg at Kilburn & Strode and Toby Bond at Bird & Bird.

  • Law Commission's 'Data Objects' Proposal Is Far-Reaching

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    The Law Commission’s proposals to recognize data objects as a new category of personal property would bring fundamental changes were they to be implemented, and would have significant ramifications for finance litigation, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • UK Rulings Give Chinese Courts Wide Powers In IP Disputes

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    The recent rulings in Nokia v. Oppo and Philips v. Oppo open the door for Chinese courts to adjudicate worldwide rate-setting terms for standard-essential patents, and in so doing present a timely wake-up call as to China's influence, say F. Scott Kieff at George Washington University Law School and Thomas Grant at the University of Cambridge.

  • Swatch V. Samsung Offers IP Warning To Platform Operators

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    The recent U.K. High Court decision of Swatch v. Samsung demonstrates that while platform operators may wish to exercise greater control over the apps distributed on their platforms, this carries with it a corresponding duty to apply due diligence to protect the intellectual property rights of third parties, say Alex Borthwick and William Hillson at Powell Gilbert.

  • Opinion

    The USPTO Should Give Ukraine Even More Help

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark office should take three direct steps to help confer upon Ukraine's patent office the same benefits it previously granted to Russia's Rospatent, in addition to the sanctions the USPTO has already conferred in response to the attack on Ukraine, say David Kappos at Cravath, Teresa Summers at Summers Law Group and Andrew Baluch at Smith Baluch.

  • International Law May Protect Foreign Investors In Russia

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    Investment treaties that allow eligible foreign investors to bring claims for compensation by way of international arbitration may offer a better, or the only, avenue to recover losses for assets that have been seized by Russia, say attorneys at Cooley.

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