About IP Law
With the laws around Intellectual Property and Information Technology changing all the time, keeping pace is hard enough. But knowing the law isn’t enough. You need to know what those changes are going to mean for your clients. The big picture, the fine detail, the impact and the next steps.
Copyright
Practical information about copyright, moral rights, performers’ rights and rights in performances. Get precedent copyright assignments and licences here.
Trade marks
Practical information about trade marks, passing off, geographical indications and anti-counterfeiting. Get precedent trade mark assignments and licences here.
Patents
Practical information about patents and supplementary protection certificates. Get precedent patent assignments and licences here.
IP disputes
Get guidance on strategic and practical steps for dealing with IP disputes, including ways of trying to avoid them in the first place. Our case analysis highlights points from judgments so you can be confident at work.
Topics We Cover
Latest IP News
MLex: OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other big AI companies saw the final version of the EU AI Act’s code of practice for general-purpose AI models...
The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs has released a study examining the legal implications of using copyright-protected works to train...
Welcome to this week’s edition of the IP weekly highlights: a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP....
TMT analysis: ‘At present, the application of UK copyright law to the training of AI models is disputed’. This sentence, in the introduction to the...
The European Commission has published a proposal (COM(2025) 353 final) for a new Regulation on European Union designs, which would repeal and replace...
Latest IP Practice Notes
Data protection and the creative industriesThis Practice Note contains practical guidance on how the UK film and photography industry has adapted in...
Drafting for unforeseen events—commercial contractsThis Practice Note provides practical guidance for general commercial practitioners on points to...
Exclusion and limitation of liabilityThis Practice Note considers exclusion and limitation of liability in business-to-business (B2B) contracts. It...
Virtual execution of documentsThis Practice Note provides practical guidance on how to execute documents properly when one or more parties to a...
IP due diligence for software companiesThis Practice Note provides a practical overview on how an IP lawyer or practitioner should complete a due...
Latest IP Precedents
Template agreement—mutualThis Agreement is made on [date]Parties1[insert name of Party A][ of OR a company incorporated in [England and Wales] under...
Letter of claim—patent infringementLetter of claim—patent infringement[Alleged infringer’s name and address][Date]Dear [insert organisation...
Social media—training materialsThese social media training materials consist of template PowerPoint slides that can be used as the basis of one or...
Domain name disputes—training materialsThese training materials are template PowerPoint slides which can be used as the basis of a presentation on...
Confidentiality letter—one-way—pro-recipient[insert address of sender]Our ref: [insert reference]Your ref: [insert reference][insert address of...
Latest IP Q&As
Featured IP content
Introduction to passing off
Introduction to passing offUnlike many other countries, the UK has no unfair competition law. Brand owners seeking to prevent competitors from...
Trade mark infringement—UK
Trade mark infringementRights conferred by a trade mark registrationThe registration of a trade mark gives the owner the exclusive right to prevent...
Copyright—authorship and ownership
Copyright—authorship and ownershipThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) defines the author of a work as the person who created it....
Passing off—goodwill, misrepresentation and damage
Passing off—goodwill, misrepresentation and damageWhat is passing off?Passing off is a common law tort which protects rights that are not capable of...
Absolute and relative grounds for refusal to register a UK trade mark
Absolute and relative grounds for refusal to register a UK trade markAbsolute and relative groundsA trade mark’s essential function is to be a badge...
Copyright infringement—remedies
Copyright infringement—remediesThis Practice Note covers the remedies available for copyright infringement.The remedies available in cases of...
Introduction to revocation of patents
Introduction to revocation of patentsPatents may be revoked, that is, taken off the register of patents, if it is decided that they are invalid in...
Joint ownership of intellectual property rights
Joint ownership of intellectual property rightsWhen parties collaborate on creative projects or research and development, complex questions arise...
Sub-licensing intellectual property rights
Sub-licensing intellectual property rightsAn intellectual property (IP) owner may choose to license its IP to a third party. This can be an effective...
Brand protection online—strategy
Brand protection online—strategyHaving an online presence is essential for most brands. Many advertise and sell their products online—on their own...
Types of dispute resolution
Types of dispute resolutionThis Practice Note provides an overview of the main types of dispute resolution that are an alternative to litigation in IP...
Parallel imports—UK
Parallel imports—UKThe legal frameworkThis Practice Note explains trade mark law on parallel trade. Parallel imports, or ‘grey market’ goods, are...
Know-how—protection and licensing
Know-how—protection and licensingThis Practice Note explains what know-how is and sets out the different ways know-how can be protected before...
Copyright—secondary infringement
Copyright—secondary infringementWhereas primary infringement requires in most instances the act of reproduction, secondary infringement is about...
Licensing intellectual property rights
Licensing intellectual property rightsLicensing IP rights—introductionDrafting IP licences can raise a number of commercial and legal issues, which...
Application to register a UK trade mark
Application to register a UK trade markThis Practice Note provides guidance on applying to register a trade mark at the UK Intellectual Property...
IP rights and semiconductors
IP rights and semiconductorsBackground to semiconductorsA semiconductor is essentially any material which has electrical conductivity and can thus...
Can the assignment of a patent be retroactively effective?
Associated legal terms
Omnibus claim
An omnibus claim in patent law is one which tries to claim everything disclosed in the patent not otherwise claimed.
Primary infringer
A threat can be made to a primary infringer that is protected from the tort of making unjustified threats of patent infringement.
Semiconductors
Computer chips consist of microscopic patterns etched onto a circuit which is then placed between two or more semiconducting layers. They do not qualify for copyright, patent or design right. The semiconductor topography right is an additional right to unregistered design law, intended to protect the electronic circuit board and the arrangement of semiconductors. Semiconductor topography right derives from EU legislation which was implemented in the UK by the Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) Regulations 1989, SI 1989/1100 (subsequently amended by a number of statutory instruments). It grants an exclusive monopoly right for ten years from the end of the year during which the product first came to market. The right allows the rights holder to authorise or refuse sale or import of a copied topography. Following Brexit, marketing that takes place in the EU is no longer sufficient to qualify for protection in the UK.
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