Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Intellectual Property UK
-
May 30, 2024
EU Court Buries Bid To Nix Plant Nursery's Succulent Variety
A European court ruled Wednesday that a Belgian plant nursery can register a new type of succulent, upholding an earlier decision by the bloc's plant intellectual property rights body to refuse a Dutch company's challenge to the plant.
-
May 30, 2024
Nike Scores Partial Win In Adidas '3 Stripes' Appeal
Nike successfully challenged a German regional court's ruling preventing it from using a stripe pattern on five of its trouser designs, in the latest round of its stripe-centric trademark dispute with Adidas.
-
May 30, 2024
Xiaomi Hit With FRAND Litigation In Paris
A patent holding company has accused Xiaomi in a French court of unlawfully using its tech patents for "nearly all" of 4G-enabled devices, just a week after suing the phone giant in India.
-
May 30, 2024
UPC Names Pinsent Masons Atty As New Appeals Judge
The Unified Patent Court said Thursday it has appointed a new judge to its Court of Appeal in Luxembourg after one of its legally qualified members stepped down.
-
May 30, 2024
3M Nixes Teva Inhaler Patent On Appeal At EPO
3M Innovative Properties Co. has convinced European officials to ax a patent owned by Israeli generic-drug maker Teva for an inhaler that relieves pulmonary disease symptoms, arguing that other scientists would have eventually figured out its special formula.
-
May 30, 2024
Nokia Can't Block Music Streamer's 'Nonoki' TM
Nokia cannot stop the registration of a trademark for "Nonoki," after European officials ruled that people wouldn't confuse the Finnish phone brand with a free music and video streaming platform.
-
May 29, 2024
Rain Bird Irrigation Company Loses Fight To Keep 'Bird' TM
U.S. irrigation technology company Rain Bird Corp. has lost its fight to save its "Bird" trademark, with a European trademark authority appeals board concluding that the company had not validly used the mark because it only ever used "Rain Bird."
-
May 29, 2024
Penguin Loses 'Plan B' TM Bid Over Bad Faith Ruling
A European court refused to overturn a decision nixing a Penguin Random House trademark bid Wednesday, upholding a previous ruling that the application was made to usurp the existing name rights of an independent Spanish publisher.
-
May 29, 2024
Airbus Can't Resurrect European Patent For Cabin Tech
Airbus has failed to restore its patent protections over a modular cabin design after a German rival convinced a European appeals panel that the invention is too similar to two earlier patent applications.
-
May 29, 2024
Facebook Parent Gets TMs Trimmed In Camera Biz Challenge
Meta had a host of its trademarks stripped back by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office on Friday, after the body sided with a London-based camera business that consumers could easily mix up the products of the two brands.
-
May 29, 2024
Chiquita Brands Scores Victory In 'Queen' TM Dispute
Chiquita Brands notched a trademark win Wednesday in its bid to register "Chiquita Queen," after a European court ruled that earlier panels were wrong to think it would encroach on an existing fruit brand's territory.
-
May 29, 2024
EUIPO Spoils 'Tuna' TM Bid For Halal Meat
A German halal meat company has lost an appeal to register the mark "Tuna" over food-related goods that excluded the fish, after European officials ruled that it was still capable of deceiving shoppers.
-
May 28, 2024
UPC Appoints New Judges Ahead Of Milan Debut
The Unified Patent Court on Tuesday named three judges that will join its central division in Milan when the court opens in June.
-
May 28, 2024
Lego Defeats Custom Train Maker In TM Dispute
Lego has convinced a Netherlands court to stop a man from selling train sets that incorporate the brand's building blocks and figurines, arguing that it still had the right to prevent resales in Europe.
-
May 28, 2024
Swiss Solar Energy Co. Loses 'Sun2Cool' TM Challenge
A Swiss renewable energy company failed in its bid for trademark registration for its sign "sun2cool" on Friday after appellate officials at a European Union intellectual property authority ruled the mark was a "purely informative message."
-
May 28, 2024
Eastman Group Accused Of Owning No Rights In IP Spat
A company selling paint protection film for cars is fighting allegations that one of its managers stole a database belonging to Eastman Group in order to jumpstart the business, arguing the information wasn't confidential.
-
May 28, 2024
Regulators Must Weigh If 'Image Rights' Needed For AI Policy
Once the dust settles after the general election, a new government will have to consider whether protection for a person's likeness is required to help crack down on deepfakes created by artifical intelligence, as lawyers warn against a rush to introduce the new form of intellectual property.
-
May 28, 2024
Samsung Bioepis Fights AstraZeneca Unit Over Soliris Patent
Samsung Bioepis has challenged the validity of Alexion's Soliris drug in a London court in a bid to clear its path to sell a biosimilar version of the rare blood disease medicine — but the AstraZeneca unit has hit back amid hopes to maintain its monopoly over the treatment.
-
May 28, 2024
EasyGroup Sues Biz Owner For Confidentiality Breach
EasyGroup, the parent company of easyJet, has accused a U.K. business owner of flouting a confidentiality agreement with the brand by contacting a journalist at The Times newspaper about the group's legal action against him.
-
May 24, 2024
The UK Laws That Will Pass Or Fail As Election Looms
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to call an early general election to be held on July 4 has left several pieces of legislation hanging in the balance during the so-called "wash-up" period before Parliament is formally dissolved, while others have been pushed through.
-
May 24, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen an IT engineer seek permission to search a landfill hiding a hard drive supposedly storing millions of pounds in bitcoin, Glencore take on legal action by American Century Investments, gold payment app Glint bring a breach of duty claim against FRP Advisory, and an ongoing dispute between a solicitor and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
-
May 24, 2024
Chainsaw Co. Stihl Nixes 'Stiga' Lawn Mower Co.'s TM Bid
German chainsaw manufacturer Stihl has won its fight to block Swedish competitor Stiga AB from registering its "Stiga Stig" branding in the U.K., with the British intellectual property authority concluding that Stiga shouldn't be allowed to take unfair advantage from Stihl's strong reputation.
-
May 24, 2024
Reckitt Benckiser Gets 2nd Try At Dishwasher Capsule TM
European officials gave Reckitt Benckiser a narrow lifeline after ruling that its shape trademark for dishwashing capsules lacked distinctiveness but the company could still prove it had acquired it through use.
-
May 24, 2024
Bayer Loses Bid To Overturn Xarelto Patent Loss
Pharma giant Bayer AG lost its fight against a slew of generic-drug makers to keep its patent over its blockbuster drug Xarelto, when an appeals court ruled Friday that the drug involved no inventive step and should not be given protection.
-
May 24, 2024
Tesla Hits Back At InterDigital's Bid To Ax 5G FRAND Case
Tesla told a London court Friday that it is entitled to challenge the terms of licenses for 5G vehicle technology owned and licensed by InterDigital and Avanci LLC, hitting back at the two companies' bid to have its case thrown out.
Expert Analysis
-
AI Inventorship Decision Leaves Open Questions
A Virginia federal court's recent decision in Thaler v. Iancu, finding that artificial intelligence cannot be named as a patent inventor, highlights questions that will have to be answered as AI increasingly contributes to inventorship, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
-
What Patent Applications Signal About Green Energy Trends
Steadily increasing patent activity related to clean energy technologies suggests that the proportion of energy derived from green sources will also continue to grow — but smaller companies could be locked out of the patent race, even as sustainability becomes an inescapable business imperative, says Greg Sharp at Haseltine Lake.
-
Takeaways On Pre-Action Protocols From UK Patent Ruling
The U.K. High Court's recent patent ruling in Add2 Research v. dSpace instructs parties in proper pre-action discussions that avoid breaches of protocol, including how to provide materials in confidence, say Angela Jack and Emily Atherton at EIP.
-
6 Ways To Guide Applications Under New Patent Classification
Intellectual property practitioners can navigate the recently implemented Cooperative Patent Classification system to direct applications to specific prior art units within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, avoid especially difficult units, and improve clients' portfolios in newly emerging technologies, say Roberta Young and Brian Michaelis at Seyfarth.
-
Mitigating User Content Risk After EU Copyright Directive
As the deadline approaches for member states to implement the European Union’s new copyright directive, which will hold certain online content service providers liable for copyright infringement pertaining to user-uploaded content, companies should have risk-mitigation strategies in place, say attorneys at MoFo.
-
The Pandemic's Bright Spots For Lawyers Who Are Parents
The COVID-19 crisis has allowed lawyers to hone remote advocacy strategies and effectively represent clients with minimal travel — abilities that have benefited working parents and should be utilized long after the pandemic is over, says Chelsea Loughran at Wolf Greenfield.
-
ITC Seems Unlikely To Stay Investigations For Parallel IPRs
The U.S. International Trade Commission's recent order denying Ocado's attempt to stay a dispute with AutoStore pending resolution of its inter partes review petitions signals that an ITC complainant's patents are effectively shielded from IPR challenges, at least under current Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice, say attorneys at Reichman Jorgensen.
-
A Framework For Evaluating Willingness Of FRAND Licensees
As an increasing number of standard-essential patent cases turn on whether a manufacturer is willing to pay a fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory royalty for SEPs, Jorge Contreras at the University of Utah identifies conduct that typically indicates willingness or unwillingness, as well as conduct that should be viewed as indeterminate.
-
Opinion
US Should Learn From German Courts Balancing SEP Rights
The German high court's recent decision in Sisvel v. Haier set a productive tone in balancing the rights of patentees and implementers in standard-essential patent disputes, and its understanding of negotiation realities should be followed by the U.S., say Cravath's David Kappos, former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director, and Daniel Etcovitch.
-
Examining EPO's Strict Approach To AI Patent Disclosure
Because a recent decision by the European Patent Office Boards of Appeal takes a potentially problematic strict approach to disclosure requirements for machine learning-related patent applications, U.S. applicants filing in the EU should disclose several specific data training sets, says Ronny Amirsehhi at Clifford Chance.
-
ITC Dispute May Lead To PTAB Litigation Strategy Shifts
A pending motion to stay the dispute between AutoStore and Ocado at the U.S. International Trade Commission highlights competing timelines of the ITC and Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and has the potential to reshape the typical forum selection strategies for patentees and defense tactics for challengers, say attorneys at Reichman Jorgensen.
-
Opinion
US Courts Should Adjudicate FRAND Rates On A Global Basis
Following the U.K. Supreme Court's recent Unwired Planet v. Huawei decision, U.S. courts should analyze compliance with contracts on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms by assessing them on a worldwide basis, because global licenses are the only technically and financially sound way to license standard-essential patents, say attorneys at McKool Smith.
-
UK Top Court Ruling May Be Problematic For Global SEP Suits
There are several reasons to question the wisdom of the U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling that English judges have the power to set extraterritorial licensing royalty rates for standard-essential patents, including that it encourages forum shopping, says Thomas Cotter at the University of Minnesota Law School.
-
UK Ruling Shows Global SEP Enforcement Dilemma
The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling that U.K. judges have the power to set extraterritorial licensing royalty rates for standard-essential patents highlights a problem with global patent enforcement coordination and efficiency that could potentially be solved through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, says Roya Ghafele at Oxfirst.
-
Time To Reassess Your Patent Cooperation Treaty Strategy
In light of the trends outlined in the World Intellectual Property Organization's recent annual Patent Cooperation Treaty review, applicants should make decisions on which international search authority to use based on immediate cost, total cost and quality, says Karam Saab at Kilpatrick.