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
This week's edition of IP weekly highlights includes a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP. These...
MLex: A German collective rights management organisation has won its copyright lawsuit against Suno, developer of an AI music generator. A Munich...
IP analysis: The Court of Justice has confirmed that Article 9(5) of Directive 2004/48/EC precludes national legislation permitting provisional...
This week's edition of IP weekly highlights includes a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP. These...
The Supreme Court has unanimously allowed Tesla’s appeal, holding that there is a serious issue to be tried as to whether a standard essential patent...
Latest IP Practice Notes
This tracker covers litigation in multiple jurisdictions around the world dealing with complaints of copyright infringement arising from the training...
IntroductionThe purpose of this Practice Notice is to consider the issues arising in relation to the development, implementation and use of generative...
This Practice Note considers the use of specific boilerplate provisions in business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts, namely assignment, definitions and...
This Practice Note sets out the law on the use of boilerplate provisions in business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts. As well as providing details on the...
Universities and other academic institutions undertake a significant amount of research and therefore generate a lot of protectable IP. The protection...
Latest IP Precedents
This Agreement is made on [insert date].Parties1[Insert name of first co-owner of patent][ (Company Number [insert number])] [whose [registered office...
This Agreement is made on [date]Parties1[insert name of Principal] [of OR a company incorporated in [insert jurisdiction] under number [insert...
This Agreement is dated [insert date]Parties1[insert name] [of OR a company incorporated in [England and Wales] under number [insert registered...
Case No. [insert claim number]IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICEBUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND & WALESINTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LIST (ChD)[INTELLECTUAL...
[Alleged infringer’s name and address][Date]Dear [insert organisation name],[UK trade mark registration number [insert number]]We are writing on...
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
Individual character
A design shall be considered to have individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by the prior art.
Person skilled in the art
The ‘person skilled in the art’ is a hypothetical person who is uninventive but skilled in the area of technology to which the patent is directed; they are taken to have an ordinary level of skill, rather than being super-skilled.
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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