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
IP analysis: In one of the rare design cases before the Court of Justice, Advocate General (AG), Emiliou, recently had the opportunity to clarify some...
Law360, London: Businesses in Britain must immediately take stock of their trade mark portfolios to ensure they do not lose EU-wide protection by the...
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...
Law360, London: Exhaustion of intellectual property rights is a principle that limits the IP owners' rights-enforcement powers once goods have been...
Law360, London: Getty Images voluntarily dropped a copyright infringement claim in Delaware against an artificial intelligence startup it claims used...
Latest IP Practice Notes
Patent invalidity—insufficiencyGrounds of patent revocationPatents may be revoked (ie removed from the register of patents) if they are held to be...
Patent invalidity—noveltyGrounds of patent revocationPatents may be revoked (ie removed from the register of patents) if they are held to be invalid...
Patent invalidity—obviousnessPatents may be revoked (ie removed from the register of patents) if they are held to be invalid in some respect. If a...
Patent invalidity—grounds of revocationThis Practice Note discusses the grounds for patent invalidity and revocation under the Patents Act 1977 (PA...
Trade marks—UK/EU comparisonBackgroundThis Practice Note provides a high-level summary of key themes of comparison between the UK and EU in relation...
Latest IP Precedents
Draft Settlement agreement—pre-action settlementThis Agreement is made the day of 20[insert year]Parties:1[insert name of party], a company registered...
Draft Settlement agreement—for settling disputes post-commencement of proceedingsThis Agreement is made the day of 20[insert year]Parties:1[insert...
Confidentiality agreement—one-way—pro-discloserThis Agreement is made on [date]Parties1[Insert name of party][ of [insert details] OR a company...
Sustainability glossary terms (The Chancery Lane Project)These Precedent sustainability definitions, produced by The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) as...
Patent licence—pro-licensorThis Agreement is dated [insert date]Parties1[insert name] [of OR a company incorporated in [insert jurisdiction, eg...
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
Author
The author of a copyright work is the person who creates it. The author is, unless they are employed, the first owner of the work.
UK registered designs
UK registered designs are governed by the Registered Designs Act 1949. They protect the appearance of the whole or part of a product resulting from the lines/contours, colours, shape, textures/materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation. The design must be new and have individual character. There are certain exclusions from protection, including features dictated by technical function, features dictated by the need to interconnect with another product, designs that are contrary to public policy or morality, and certain emblems. A registration gives the proprietor the exclusive right to use the design, which means that it prevents reproduction and not merely copying. Protection lasts for five years from registration, renewable every five years to a maximum of 25. Following Brexit, the UK is no longer part of the Community designs system which provides an EU-wide registration called the registered Community design (RCD) (which is broadly the same in scope as a UK registered design, save for the territory covered). However, pursuant to the Designs and International Trade Marks (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, SI 2019/638, provision was made for the holders of RCDs in existence as at IP completion day (31 December 2020) to automatically become holders of comparable UK registrations, called ‘re-registered designs’.
WTO proprietor
A person is a WTO Proprietor where he or she is a national of, or is domiciled in, a country which is a member of the World Trade Organisation or he has a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in such a country.
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