NIPC Law

Jane Lambert This is the first reported case of a successful contested award under s.40 and s. 41 of the Patents Act 1977 . In Kelly and another v GE Healthcare Ltd [2009] EWHC 181 (Pat) (11 Feb 2009). The claimants, Duncan Kelly and Kwok Wai ("Ray") Chiu, were research scientists at Amersham International Plc. They were involved with the first synthesis of a compound called P53, which later formed the basis of a patented radioactive imaging agent which was a highly successful product for their employers. It was sold under the trade mark Myoview. By this action they sought an award of compensation from their employer under s. 40 and s.41 of the Patents Act 1977. They were claiming a share of the benefit which, they say, had been derived by their employer from the patents. The above sections have now been amended by s.10 of the Patents Act 2004 with respect to patents applied for after 1 Jan 2005. As the applications for the patents in this case had be...

Regulations to implement the Data Retention Directive ( Directive 2006/24/EC)  which will come into effect on 6 April 2009 have been published in draft on the OPSI website.    The legislation - to be known as The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009  - require public communications providers (“providers”), to retain specified categories of communications data for up to 12 months from the date of the communication in question and to store them in accordance with the requirements of the regulation. Data protection and data security measures are provided for in the regulation which are to be monitored by the Information Commissioner.

Embarrassingly, I am not the first to blog this event. That honour (if such it be) goes to Nick Holmes of Binary Law (see " Brainstorm on Web Law at LawCampLeeds "). And while you are there look at some of the other things on Nick's blog like the Free Legal Web which I commend and to which I hope shortly to contribute.   Nick also has the honour of organizing what appears to have been the first legal BarCamp anywhere and certainly the first in the UK. And that event was to float, develop and promote the Free Legal Web . "Now what is BarCamp " I hear some of you say. Nothing to do with barristers except that this barrister is helping to organize one.   Probably the best introduction to the BarCamp concept is provided by Wikipedia : " BarCamp  is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants." If you have never actually been to a BarCamp you can get an idea from...