Expert Analysis

• EU Ruling Highlights Strategic Benefits Of Patent Appeals

  

  The European Patent Office board of appeal recently reversed the examining board's ruling in an application by LG Electronics, highlighting how applicants struggling to escape conflicting objection traps at the examination level can improve their chances of a positive outcome with an appeal, says Andrew Rudhall at Haseltine Lake.

• UK Tech Cases Warn Of Liability Clause Drafting Pitfalls

  

  The recent U.K. High Court cases Drax Energy Solutions v. Wipro and EE v. Virgin Mobile Telecoms indicate a more literal judicial approach to construing limitations of liability, even when this significantly limits a claimant's recoverable damages, highlighting the importance of carefully drafted liability provisions, say Helen Armstrong and Tania Williams at RPC.

• Series

  In A 'Barbie' World: Boosting IP Value With Publicity Machines

  

  Mattel's history of intellectual property monitoring, including its recent challenge against Burberry over the "BRBY" trademark ahead of the "Barbie" film, shows how IP enforcement strategies can be used as publicity to increase brand value and inform potential collaborations, says Carly Duckett at Shepherd and Wedderburn.

• EU Directive Implementation Facilitates Class Action Shift

  

  Lawyers at Faegre Drinker discuss the increase in class and consumer action filings leading up to the implementation of the EU's Collective Redress Directive, and predict that certain aspects of the directive will result in a pro-claimant landscape that may mirror that of the U.S. and other common law countries.

• Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR

  

  The differences between Switzerland’s recently reformed Federal Act on Data Protection and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly around data breach reporting and the liability of company officers, will need to be carefully managed by multinationals that may have competing obligations under different laws, say Kim Roberts and Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel at King & Spalding.

• EU Antitrust Rules Set To Pose Challenges To US Businesses

  

  With stark differences between U.S. and European Union antitrust regimes, and potential for the forthcoming EU guidelines to turbocharge the commission's appetite for intervention, it is important that U.S. businesses with activities in the region take note of the reforms, say Andrea Pomana and Sarah Wilks at Mayer Brown.

• Navigating The Rising Threat Of Greenwashing Enforcement

  

  Recent high-profile cases before the Danish Consumer Ombudsman are a signal that authorities are ready to take robust action against greenwashing, and with a likely increase in the stringency of laws and severity of penalties, it is vital that businesses promoting their sustainable credentials do so in a compliant manner, says Lars Karnøe at Potter Clarkson.

• New Legislation May Not Be Needed For Recovery Of Crypto

  

  The recent seizure of cryptocurrency under a civil recovery order raises the issue of whether extended powers under the forthcoming Economic Crime Bill are necessary, with the ability to seize crypto-related items that may be the subject of a search order more likely to be of assistance, says Nicola McKinney at Quillon Law.

• Opinion

  Russia Ruling Should Lead UK To Review Sanctions Policy

  

  The High Court's recent dismissal of the first-ever court challenge to Russian sanctions in Shvidler v. Secretary of State sets a demanding standard for overturning designation decisions, highlighting the need for an independent review of the Russia sanctions regime, says Helen Taylor at Spotlight on Corruption.

• UPC Revocation Actions Offer An Attractive Patent Strategy

  

  As the Unified Patent Court gains momentum after an initial period of nervousness around the recently launched forum, more businesses may be starting to realize the value of running revocation actions as an alternative route to knocking out patents across Europe, say Oliver Laing and Georgia Carr at Potter Clarkson.

• Pension Plan Amendment Power Lessons From BBC Ruling

  

  The High Court's recent ruling in BBC v. BBC Pension Trust upheld an unusually restrictive fetter on the pension scheme's amendment power, which highlights how fetters can vary in degrees of protection and the importance of carefully considering any restriction, says Maxwell Ballad at Freeths.

• 5 Takeaways For Litigants From Early EU Patent Court Ruling

  

  One of the first Unified Patent Court ex parte preliminary injunctions was recently granted in myStromer v. Revolt Zycling, demonstrating the court's ability to decide cases extremely quickly, but parties should be careful in phrasing their motions and sufficiently substantiating them to achieve the desired result, says Antje Brambrink at Finnegan.

• What To Know About The EU Residency Scheme Changes

  

  The U.K. government recently announced extensions to residency status under the EU Settlement Scheme, which is a net positive for U.K.-EU relations and will be welcomed by those affected, including employers concerned about losing employees with expired permission, say Claire Nilson and Abilio Jaribu at Faegre Drinker.

• High Court Dechert Ruling Offers Litigation Privilege Lessons

  

  While the recent High Court ruling in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, which concerned torture conspiracy allegations against the firm, held that litigation privilege can be claimed by a nonparty to proceedings, the exact boundaries of privilege aren't always clear-cut and may necessitate analyzing the underlying principles, says Scott Speirs at Norton Rose.

• What To Know About AI Fraudsters Before Facing Disputes

  

  The potential of artificial intelligence to augment fraudsters' efforts is arguably unprecedented, so lawyers will swiftly need to become familiar with the fundamentals of AI to deal with it in the context of disputes, says Daniel Wyatt and Christopher Whitehouse at RPC.