Insights

Fashion trade marks and registered designs

Articles Oct112022

Centralised European patent protection and enforcement is coming

The Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will enter into force on 1 June 2023, when the UPC Agreement (UPCA) is planned to enter into force. These new systems will centralise patent protection and enforcement within many EU countries.

Articles Oct042022

Invalidity case highlights importance of a UK address for service for WIPO registrations

A recent UK IPO decision, Marco Polo (O/681/22) shows the dangers of not appointing a UK address for service for WIPO trade mark registrations.

Articles Oct032022

Patents at the intersection of AI and transport: improving the journey from patent filing to grant

It is no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have enabled innovation to grow in myriad application fields. The European Patent Office (EPO) considers applications relating to core AI techniques to be unpatentable. The application of AI and ML techniques to certain fields may be more successful at the EPO if the field is per se considered “technical”.

Articles Sep292022

NFTs, blockchain and intellectual property – part 2: the IP rights of NFT owners

In part two of this series, we look at the interplay between NFTs and specific intellectual property (IP) rights that subsist in the UK.

Articles Sep292022

New guidance for UK IPO patent examination of AI inventions

In 2020, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) published a call for views on the patentability of artificial intelligence (AI) inventions. In March 2021, the UK government committed the IPO to publish enhanced guidelines on the examination of patent applications relating to AI inventions

Articles Sep222022

NFTs, blockchain and intellectual property – part 1: the key concepts

In part one of this series, we introduce the concepts of non-fungible tokens (NFTS), the metaverse, cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Articles Sep162022

Can trade marks be infringed by a toy?

Bill Lister looks at how toys, in particular replica models of real life cars, could infringe on a trade mark.

Articles Sep132022

The Unitary Patent

This is the second article in our UP/UPC series and we discuss issues to consider when deciding whether to obtain a Unitary Patent (UP).

Articles Sep082022

Post-COVID challenges in trade mark law

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a deleterious effect across the full breadth of the working world. The same is true for the legal sector, and for trade mark law, which is now emerging from the pandemic era in an altered form.