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EU to start UK data adequacy decision-making process in ‘weeks’, top official says

The following Commercial news provides comprehensive and up to date legal information on EU to start UK data adequacy decision-making process in ‘weeks’, top official says

Civil Justice Council’s review of the pre-action protocols

The following Commercial news provides comprehensive and up to date legal information on Civil Justice Council’s review of the pre-action protocols

UK film and TV following IP completion day

The following IP news provides comprehensive and up to date legal information on UK film and TV following IP completion day

Amendments where no limitation issues and lifting the automatic stay under CPR 15.11 (Football Association Premier League v O'Donovan)

The following Dispute Resolution news provides comprehensive and up to date legal information on Amendments where no limitation issues and lifting the automatic stay under CPR 15.11 (Football Association Premier League v O'Donovan)

Featured IP content

Tomlin orders

Brexit: The UK's departure from the EU on exit day ie Friday 31 January 2020 has implications for practitioners dealing with provisions in the CPR...

Introduction to passing off

Unlike many other countries, the UK has no unfair competition law. Brand owners seeking to prevent competitors from marketing ‘copycat’ products or...

Declaration of a director's interests—the statutory provisions

A director who is in any way, directly or indirectly, interested in:•a proposed transaction or arrangement with the company of which they are a...

Types of dispute resolution

This practice note provides an overview of the main types of dispute resolution that are an alternative to litigation. As well as covering the main...

Practice notes

Patent infringement

In order to establish that an unauthorised use or dealing in a product or process amounts to infringement of a patent it is necessary to prove that:•a...

9th Nov

Practice notes

Transferring patent rights

As of exit day (31 January 2020) the UK is no longer an EU Member State. However, in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK has entered an...

9th Nov

Practice notes

Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) process

This Practice Note describes and explains the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) process and covers:•Application of the UDRP•Purpose...

Produced in partnership with Emily Taylor of Oxford Information Labs 12th Jan

Practice notes

Sub-licensing intellectual property rights

An intellectual property (IP) owner may choose to license its IP to a third party. This can be an effective route to generating revenue while...

Produced in partnership with Jessica Stretch 12th Jan

In-house

Practice notes

No deal Brexit—jurisdiction (UK and the Lugano Convention)

This Practice Note has been produced in partnership with Guy Pendell, Liz Williams and Kushal Gandhi of CMS.STOP PRESS: This Practice Note is under...

9th Nov

Brexit

Practice notes

Patent infringement—remedies

As of exit day (31 January 2020) the UK is no longer an EU Member State. However, in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK has entered an...

9th Nov

Practice notes

Intellectual property international treaties and conventions

IP laws are almost always national in nature. However, there are many conventions and treaties under which nations agree to provide minimum levels of...

9th Nov

Practice notes

Indirect infringement of patents

Introduction to infringementA patent owner has to prove two elements before it can secure an infringement finding (and then an injunction, damages,...

9th Nov

In-house

Practice notes

Sale of counterfeit goods online

As of exit day (31 January 2020) the UK is no longer an EU Member State. However, in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK has entered an...

9th Nov

Precedents

Execution clause—company—deed

Option 1—deed executed by a company under its common seal (model articles, where the authorised signatory is an...

9th Nov

In-house

Practice notes

Copyright—authorship and ownership

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) defines the author of a work as the person who created it. The author as creator is not always...

9th Nov

Precedents

Third party intellectual property rights indemnity clause—pro-supplier

1 Intellectual property rights indemnity 1.1 The Supplier shall defend the Customer against any third party claim that...

9th Nov

In-house

Practice notes

Elements of passing off—goodwill

Passing off is a common law tort which protects rights that are not capable of registration or are difficult to register as trade marks (eg colours,...

9th Nov

Practice notes

IP rights and semiconductors

Background to semiconductorsA semiconductor is essentially any material which has electrical conductivity and can thus either conduct, or conversely,...

Produced in partnership with Greg Burke of RPC, Paul Joseph of RPC and Sophie Tuson of RPC 12th Jan

Practice notes

Registered and unregistered design right infringement

This Practice Note covers the legislative framework, as well as case law, relating to infringement of registered and unregistered designs. For...

9th Nov

In-house

Precedents

Month definition

Month means a calendar month; Close This is a suggested definition for the term 'month', which...

9th Nov

Most recent Q&As content

Q&As

What are the formalities for an attorney executing a deed on behalf of a company?

Execution of deeds by companiesDocuments executed as deeds must be expressed as being executed by the company. A document will be deemed to be...

18th Jan

Q&As

Are UK courts and tribunals bound by decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union post-Brexit?

As of exit day (11pm on 31 January 2020) the UK is no longer an EU Member State and its relationship with the EU is governed by the Withdrawal...

15th Jan

Brexit

Q&As

How do I protect confidential information in the workplace?

What counts as confidential information? The legal definition of confidential information is information that is (i) confidential in nature, and (ii)...

12th Jan

Q&As

Is there a risk of a claim for defamation being made against a company as a result of statements made at a company meeting? What defences are available?

This Q&A focusses on the situation where the statement made was oral. This considers libel and slander generally, rather than by reference to...

Produced in partnership with Joshua Marshall of Fieldfisher 8th Jan

Q&As

In light of Barbulescu v. Romania [2016] IRLR 235, how does this impact the head office of the employer and IT employees (both based outside of the EU) accessing employee's (based in the UK) personal emails?

On the facts of this case the rule put forward by the court, in explaining art 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (right to privacy), is...

Produced in partnership with Ashley Roughton of Ipchambers.eu 8th Jan

Q&As

What impact will the UK’s decision to leave the EU have on the current regime which protects geographical indications? How will this affect the ability of UK manufacturers to protect the status of iconic foods like Cornish pasties and Melton Mowbray pork pies? What measures will need to be implemented in order to ensure that they are protected after Brexit and to avoid the sale of cheap imitations from Europe?

This Q&A considers the impact of the UK’s decision to leave the EU will have on the current regime which protects geographical indications.The current...

Produced in partnership with Bonita Trimmer of Browne Jacobson 8th Jan

Brexit

Q&As

If a right holder wishes to file an EU trade mark application for an unconventional mark (ie a trade mark that is not a word mark or figurative mark), following the recent amendments to the EU Trade Mark Regulation, what options are available to them for representing the mark on the register and what steps should they take to maximise the chances of getting it registered?

In this Q&A we have focussed on the changes initiated by Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 (which were codified in Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, the EU Trade...

Produced in partnership with Steven Murray of Harrison Clark Rickerbys 8th Jan

Q&As

If a company proposes to launch a new product in Japan through a Japanese subsidiary and then to launch in other countries via other subsidiaries, can the parent company file the trade mark in Japan and then utilise the benefit of the Madrid Protocol? Would the Paris Convention provide better flexibility? What is the best solution to ensure that ownership remains with the parent company throughout the process?

In answering this Q&A we have limited our research to cover the Madrid Protocol and the Paris Convention. We are unable to give advice on Japanese...

Produced in partnership with Robert Cumming of Appleyard Lee 8th Jan

Q&As

Where a trade mark coexistence agreement is silent on successors-in-title, will the agreement be binding on the successor-in-title in an asset purchase transaction?

Unlike real property, where a covenant in a lease will become binding on the successors and assigns upon the purchase of the asset (ie a house or...

Produced in partnership with Paul A. Harris of Venner Shipley 8th Jan

Q&As

Can the assignment of a patent be retroactively effective?

A patent or patent application is personal property that can be assigned (section 30(1) and (2) of the Patents Act 1977 (PA 1977)). In order to be...

Produced in partnership with Joshua Marshall of Fieldfisher 8th Jan

Q&As

After a one off data sharing has taken place, which complies with the DPA 1998, what are the ongoing obligations on the original data controller?

The answer will depend upon the basis upon which the data sharing took place, and any contractual arrangements entered into between the parties.If the...

Produced in partnership with Ashley Roughton of Ipchambers.eu 8th Jan

Q&As

Can a deed be signed abroad and witnessed by a foreign national?

This response assumes that the deed is executed by an individual.This response excludes execution under seal, by electronic signatures, by...

Produced in partnership with Cecilia Xu Lindsey of 9 Stone Buildings 8th Jan

Q&As

Quantum, in an intellectual property claim, is often difficult to predict at the time a claim is being issued. What are the practical options for those seeking to issue a claim in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court?

What is the problem?In an intellectual property (IP) claim, it is often difficult to predict quantum at the time the claim is issued.Why does the...

Produced in partnership with Daniel Byrne of AA Thornton 8th Jan

Q&As

Will the processing of personal data relating to US citizens by a UK company in the UK be subject to the GDPR (once that applies) (and assuming the personal data relates to US citizens only, not EU citizens)?

Although the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) does not necessarily apply to every organisation in the world, it...

Produced in partnership with Shobana Iyer of Swan Chambers 8th Jan

Q&As

Is it trade mark infringement to affix the name of a religious figure to a product in circumstances where the name of the religious figure is already registered as an EU or UK trade mark in relation to identical or similar products?

This Q&A will quote the provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994) as the primary UK legislation.The starting point in this factual matrix is...

Produced in partnership with Joshua Marshall of Fieldfisher 8th Jan

Q&As

Can an employer rely on a general IPR indemnity not to infringe third party IPR against the contractor, when they directed the contractor to breach the patent?

For the purposes of this Q&A, we have focused on the scenario where the principal (not necessarily as an employer) has an IPR indemnity clause in its...

Produced in partnership with Shobana Iyer of Swan Chambers 8th Jan

Q&As

Where you have a GB divisional application which flows from an earlier Patents Co-operation Treaty (PCT), what is considered the ‘publication date’ for the purposes of claiming damages under section 69 of the Patents Act 1977—do you look at the publication date of the PCT or the publication of the GB divisional application itself?

A divisional application filed under section 15(9) of the Patents Act 1977 (PA 1977), whether the parent was made under the PA 1977 or under the...

Produced in partnership with Professor Philip Johnson of Cardiff Law School 8th Jan

Q&As

What are the requirements for an action to proceed in the UK where there are multiple claimants and one defendant?

This Q&A covers issuing of claims under any cause of action (not merely copyright infringement).For the purposes of this Q&A we have focussed on class...

Produced in partnership with Kevin Leigh of No 5 Chambers 8th Jan

Q&As

Is there any guidance or case law regarding whether there is a genuine use of a trade mark within the EU if a party provides their services in question outside of the EU, but those services can be booked from within the EU? By way of example, a hotel may be located outside of the EU but customers may book rooms to that particular hotel from within the EU

For the purposes of this Q&A, we have assumed that the trade mark in question is registered in the EU, and that the hotel room referenced is booked...

Produced in partnership with Ashley Roughton of Ipchambers.eu 8th Jan

Q&As

When drafting an Ordinary Power of Attorney specifically in relation to operation of a donor’s business, do the general powers under section 10 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971 cover any type of decision to be made about the business (eg employment of staff or dealing with the lease of the business premises) or should these be included as separate clauses?

A power of attorney is a document which enables a person (the donee) to take steps as if those steps were taken by another person (the donor). It is...

Produced in partnership with Chris Bryden of 4 King’s Bench Walk 8th Jan