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Intellectual Property UK
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May 03, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
The past week in London has seen rapper Ivorian Doll hit with a copyright claim, private members club Aspinalls file a claim against a Saudi sheikh, and Motorola Solutions file a claim against the British government on the heels of its dispute over losing a £400 million ($502 million) government contract. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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May 03, 2024
Arts Charity Sues Over Queen's Holographic Portrait
An arts charity has sued an artist for infringing the copyright it owns in a series of portraits it commissioned of the queen, claiming that he owes the organization £100,000 ($125,500) and substantial fees from unlicensed sales.
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May 03, 2024
'Gel Works' Too Laudatory For TM Despite Other Similar Logos
An Australian lubricant maker has failed to register a trademark over its name, "Gel Works," after European officials ruled that the sign told consumers a lot about the lube quality — but not much about the company making it.
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May 03, 2024
5 Questions For Mewburn Ellis TM Chief Andy King
Mewburn Ellis LLP head of trademark Andy King talks to Law360 about changing client attitudes, keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology, such as the twin impacts of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, plus the fight for effective representation at the U.K. trademark office.
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May 02, 2024
McNeil Again Denied Patent On Spray Nicotine Treatment
A Kenvue-owned pharmaceutical company has failed to patent a tobacco replacement therapy, after European patent officials ruled that other scientists would have thought of adding a special solution to counteract the slowing effects of saliva pH.
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May 02, 2024
IBM Director Grilled Over Reverse Engineering Allegations
An IBM director faced questions on Thursday about his role in accusing a tech rival of breaching its customer agreement by claiming it reverse-engineered IBM software, with lawyers for the rival arguing he improperly terminated the customer contract.
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May 02, 2024
InterDigital Claims Munich Court Win In Lenovo SEP Spat
InterDigital said Thursday it has secured an injunction against Lenovo in Germany, with a Munich court ruling that Lenovo infringed an InterDigital patent deemed essential to 4G and 5G technology and was unwilling to agree to a fair license.
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May 02, 2024
Truck Aerodynamics Co. Sues Over Amazon Deal Loss
A truck aerodynamics company has accused a rival of modifying products that were being tested by Amazon, leading them to perform poorly and causing the company to lose out on a million-pound contract.
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May 02, 2024
Universal Music Allows Artists Back On TikTok After Deal
Universal Music Group has reached a deal with TikTok that will allow its affiliated artists and music to return to the social media platform months after the companies fell out over issues of artist compensation and artificial intelligence-generated content.
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May 02, 2024
Bayer Sues Dr. Reddy's In Latest Xarelto Patent Clash
Bayer has accused generic drugmaker Dr. Reddy's of selling blood thinning medication that infringes a dosage patent over its blockbuster drug Xarelto, marking the latest attempt by the pharmaceutical giant to stop challenges to its market share.
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May 01, 2024
Abbott Wants Sales Of Rival Glucose Monitor Barred For Now
A subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories urged a London court Wednesday to bar medical devices rival Sinocare Inc. from mass marketing a glucose monitoring system that it argues is highly similar to a trademark for one of its own products.
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May 01, 2024
Bayer Gets Chance To Appeal Xarelto Patent Loss
Bayer AG can appeal a High Court decision that nixed a patent for its blockbuster drug Xarelto in the U.K., the U.K. judiciary confirmed on Wednesday.
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May 01, 2024
10x Genomics Gets Injunction Against Rival's DNA Kit
Curio Bioscience must immediately stop selling a version of its spatial mapping kits used for DNA and RNA analysis of tissue samples, after the Unified Patent Court ruled they might be infringing on 10x Genomics' patent.
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May 01, 2024
Social Media Marketing Biz Scores Partial TM Win In UK
A social media marketing firm using the logo "Goat" has succeeded in part in invalidating a trademark applied for by a dance company using the same word, with the intellectual property regulator finding that consumers may be deceived into thinking the dance company is linked to the larger film company.
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May 01, 2024
Game Developer Denies Copying Rival's 'Generic' Racing App
A British game developer has hit back at its French rival in a copyright feud over the pair's mobile games, telling a London court that any similarities between the apps are nondistinctive features that don't merit protection.
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May 01, 2024
MPs Call For New AI Laws To Protect Music Industry
A group of MPs said Wednesday that they are calling on Parliament to introduce tougher laws on artificial intelligence, with a focus on preventing generative AI programs from stealing from musicians and others in creative industries.
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April 30, 2024
Target's Bid To Register Bullseye TM In EU Misfires
Target has failed to register a European Union trademark over its iconic red and white bullseye logo after the bloc's officials ruled that its two "banal and simple geometric shapes" weren't distinctive.
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April 30, 2024
Payment Co. Hits Back Over Failed Domain Name Deal
Several payments companies and their bosses have hit back at claims by a Nuvei Group subsidiary, denying that they broke a promise to use the company's payments technology as part of a deal to use a website domain.
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April 30, 2024
Rival Denies Using IBM Software Secrets At London Trial
Tech company LZLABS denied allegations that it reverse-engineered proprietary technology owned by IBM, telling a London judge Tuesday that its software was not developed using any inner workings or hidden secrets of IBM programs.
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April 30, 2024
Backing For Concord's $1.5B Hipgnosis Bid Falls
Support for music rights company Concord Chorus' $1.5 billion bid for rival Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. dropped among the latter's shareholders on Tuesday, after private equity giant Blackstone swooped in with an improved $1.6 billion offer.
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April 30, 2024
Mercedes-Benz Loses Race Against 'Vivo' Self-Driving Car TM
Auto giant Mercedes-Benz has lost its bid to prevent a self-driving car company from registering its "Vivo" logo, as the U.K. intellectual property authority found that it is not meaningfully similar to Mercedes' own "Vito" brand.
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April 29, 2024
German Pharma Biz Can't Block Rival's 'Palmea' TM In EU
A German pharmaceutical company can't reverse a competitor's "Palmea" trademark protections in the European Union because its earlier "mea" family of marks isn't sufficiently similar to create a risk of confusion, an appeals panel in the bloc said in a ruling made public Monday.
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April 29, 2024
Board Backs German Winery's Appeal Against 'Grizzly' TM
A German winery has beaten a rival's bid to register the trademark "Grizzly" over alcohol drink preparations, with European officials ruling that the winery's earlier "Grizzly Bear" sign over spirits also covers premix ingredients.
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April 29, 2024
Tech Co.'s 'Fraud Fighters' TM Too Descriptive
An antifraud tech company failed to register a trademark for "Fraud Fighters," after European officials ruled it was "nothing more than the sum of its parts" describing the goods it covered.
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April 29, 2024
Hotel Group Blocks Candlemaker's TM Over Confusion Risks
A French hotel chain has persuaded the U.K.'s intellectual property office to refuse a trademark for a company selling scented candles because consumers might mistake the hotel's berry branch trademark for a line of the candlemaker's berry-scented products.
Expert Analysis
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AI-Fueled Innovation Poses Patentability Challenges
Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP explores questions about standards for inventorship, nonobviousness and disclosure as patent practitioners, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the courts grapple with rapid innovation in AI technology.
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Benefits Of Unified Patent Court Compared To Local Litigation
Recently opened for business, the Unified Patent Court offers a faster, cheaper and more streamlined solution to handle patent disputes compared to EU countries and the U.S., and could become the most important forum for patent litigation in Europe, if not worldwide, say lawyers at McDermott.
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Global Issues In EU's Licensing Plans For Essential Patents
Consultants at Analysis Group explore questions surrounding the recently announced EU licensing framework for standard-essential patents, and how the European Commission's goals may influence discussions of issues like procedure, efficiency and transparency in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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EPO Decision Adds To Sparse Case Law On Core AI Patents
The recent European Patent Office Board of Appeal decision in the Sparsely connected neural network/Mitsubishi case is remarkable for its technicality, and provides rare guidance for companies on the requirements for core artificial intelligence invention patents, says Alexander Korenberg at Kilburn & Strode.
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A Deep Dive Into EU Unified Patent Court Policy
Robert Sterne at Sterne Kessler offers a detailed analysis of the EU's Unified Patent Court and the unitary patent, which go live on June 1, discussing what U.S. practitioners need to know from an enforcement and freedom-to-operate perspective.
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AI And Copyright: Tracking The Ownership Issues
The rise of generative AI has created copyright and ownership challenges in creative industries, but contractual agreements, intellectual property law and AI-specific regulations can be used to address these issues, says Kimiya Shams at Devialet.
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How Ed Sheeran's Serenade May Have Swayed The Jury
While Ed Sheeran's performance of his hit song "Thinking Out Loud" at trial could not protect him from the subconscious copying doctrine, it may have tapped into jurors' intuitions about independent creation, winning him the copyright infringement suit over the song, says Christopher Buccafusco at Duke University School of Law.
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An Overlooked Tool To Fight USPTO 'Restriction'
Over the last several years, we have seen the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office more commonly impose flimsy restrictions on patent applications under the "one invention per application" rule, and practitioners underutilize petition as a means to challenge them, say George Chaclas and Emily Ferriter Russo at Day Pitney.
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Opinion
AI-Generated Works Should Not Have Copyright Protection
The U.S. Copyright Office has correctly determined that works created solely by artificial intelligence do not qualify for protection, as granting exclusive rights to such works would be unwise for a number of reasons, says Thomas McNulty at Lando & Anastasi.
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Examining The New UK Service Guidance For TM Proceedings
A new much-anticipated U.K. Intellectual Property Office practice notice affects situations where there is no valid U.K. address for service of documents in trademark and registered design proceedings, and will mean rights holders are on notice at an earlier stage of proceedings, with limited time in which to respond, says Nina O'Sullivan at Mishcon de Reya.
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A Look At M&S' Registered Design Claim Win Against Aldi
Adding to the long line of cases seeking to restrain Aldi's attempts to mimic market-leading products, Marks & Spencer's recent success in the U.K. High Court based on registered designs demonstrates that supermarket copycat products may no longer be able to sail so close to the wind, says Alex Borthwick at Powell Gilbert.
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UK Teva Ruling Brings Patent Remedy Into Question
Arrow declarations have been considered an extremely effective tool for patent litigators, but following the recent U.K. Court of Appeal decision in Teva v. Novartis it appears that courts are looking to take a more conservative view, say David Holt and Tony Proctor at Potter Clarkson.
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How CJEU Case Shifts TM Liability For Platforms Like Amazon
The EU Court of Justice's recent ruling on Amazon's liability for trademark infringement in relation to fake Christian Louboutin shoes advertised by third parties on its website may leave web platforms that sell third-party vendors' products alongside their own brands more vulnerable to infringement claims, say Louisa Chambers and Helen Reddish at Travers Smith.
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Europe's New Unitary Patent System Will Affect IP Agreements
Marco Stief at Maiwald discusses key points in intellectual property agreements that legal practitioners will need to consider in Europe's soon-to-open centralized patent court, including regional exclusivity in different contracting member states.
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EU Medicine Reboxing Ruling Gives Guidance To Pharma Cos.
The recent landmark decision of the Court of Justice of the EU in Novartis Pharma on repackaging medicines has provided pharma companies with a much-needed framework, with better protections for trademarks and clearer protocols for handling imported products, say Ulf Grundmann and Elisabeth Kohoutek at King & Spalding.