Intellectual Property

Setting up a new business is certainly an exciting endeavour. Entrepreneurs are by and large enthusiastic and ambitious about their chosen sector. However, despite gaining valuable experience in, or thoroughly researching the relevant industry, the legal pitfalls of starting a new business are often overlooked. Here are our top tips to get your new business […]

Intellectual Property (IP) is an exceptionally valuable asset to many businesses, and by no means least to the car manufacturing industry. The Range Rover Evoque was launched by Jaguar Land Rover with a price tag ranging from around £30k -£50k, a price tag warranted by its “award winning design”. At the Chinese Guangzhou motor show […]

On 3 November this year, one of the longest-running adventures of famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was finally put to rest. Holmes is surely among the most famous and popular characters in the literary canon, a fact that was apparent to writers other than creator Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle even while he was still alive. French author […]

In a previous article we looked at the employee invention compensation case of Unilever plc –v- Shanks, where the Court held that an employee was entitled to a fair share of his employer’s royalties derived from an invention over which the employer had secured a patent. However, a decision not to award any employee inventor […]

Following a vote in the House of Lords, a law has now been passed that will allow people to alter copyrighted work for “caricature, parody and pastiche”.  The new law, called the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014, will come into force on 1 October 2014. This change in the law […]

Sunday evening will see the San Francisco 49ers take on the Jacksonville Jaguars here in England at Wembley Stadium. The 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is nearly as famous for his distinctive tattoos as he is for reaching last year’s Super Bowl. However, Kaepernick could find himself in hot water following lawsuits that are being filed […]

In a previous blog, we looked at the case of Société des Produits Nestlé SA –v- Cadbury UK Ltd (2012), in which the High Court allowed Cadbury’s application to register as a trade mark the particular colour purple that has become associated with their brand. That decision has now been overturned by the Court of […]

Are you signed up to Spotify? Have you created an ‘Ibiza Annual 2013’ playlist to pay homage to your summer pilgrimage to the White Isle? Then you may have got Spotify in hot water! Ministry of Sound claims that Spotify has refused to delete their subscriber’s playlists that recreate existing Ministry of Sound compilation albums […]

When a wealthy and powerful firm takes offence at the use of a trade mark small firms are placed in a tricky situation. Do they stand firm or, in fear of being sued, do they back down? In a recent case the little guy won. The Austrian company Red Bull claimed that a small Norfolk […]

There is a lot of money in ideas. I’m not talking about inventions, necessarily, but the works of human imagination that are so frequently the subject of copyright and intellectual property disputes. This is a formidable and specialised area of law that covers everything from knock-off clothes appropriating designer labels, to traders or artists innocently […]

Under the Trade Marks Act 1994, a trade mark cannot be registered if it does not satisfy certain prescribed requirements, including that it must be a ‘sign’ and be capable of being represented graphically. A trade mark can also not be registered if it is devoid of distinctive character, unless before the date of the […]

The World Wide Web has revolutionised the way people live in both their personal and professional lives, with every conceivable topic available at the click of a button. Internet users can access a wide variety of websites by typing in domain names which end with a small number of suffixes such as .com, .net and […]