NIPC Law

Cyrillic Script Monument in Antarctica Author Inoceramid Bivalves   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Wikimedia Comm ons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Moylan, Coulson and Arnold)   Lish v The Northern Block Ltd and another [2026] EWCA Civ 497 (27 April 2026) This was an appeal by the claimant, Mariya Vasiliyevna Lish, against the order of David Stone on 22 Aug 2025 in which he struck out two of her claims as an abuse of process of the court for the reasons given in his judgment (see  Lish v The Northern Block Ltd and Another [2025] EWHC 2172 (Ch) 23 Aug 2025).   I discussed that judgment in  Copyright - Lish v The Northern Block Ltd.   on 30 Aug 2025. Background The   first   defendant, The Northern Block ("TNB"), was a type foundry which supplied typefaces or fonts in various alphabets to graphic designers, printers, manufacturers and others.  It was founded by the second defendant, Jonathan Hill. Mrs Lish was a typeface des...

A Huawei Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer ("DSLAM") Author Jnnis Walter Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Arnold, Nugee and Birss) A daptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment Inc v British Telecommunications Plc [2023] EWCA Civ 451 (26 April 2023) This was an appeal by  Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, Incorporated ("ASSIA")  against the judgment of Mrs Justice Falk in  Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment Inc v British Telecommunications Plc [2022] EWHC 1707 (Ch) (6 July 2022). Her ladyship dismissed ASSIA's claim for declarations on the construction of a patent licence granted by ASSIA to British Telecommunications Plc ("BT" ).  ASSIA's appeal came on before Lords Justices Arnold, Nugee and Birss on 29 March 2023.  By their judgment which was handed down on 26 April 2022, their lordships unanimously dismissed the appeal (see Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment Inc v ...

The Rolls Building Author Basher Eyre   Licence CC BY-SA  2.0   Source Wikipedia Rolls Bldg   Jane Lambert Patents Court (HH Judge Hacon)  Permavent Ltd and another v Maki n [2020] EWHC 3495 (Pat) (17 Dec 2020) A Tomlin order is a way of settling litigation.  It consists of a settlement agreement that is confidential to the parties annexed to an order staying the proceedings.  If a party fails to abide by the agreement, the order permits the other party to apply to the court to enforce it without bringing a new action,  It is called a Tomlin order because it was first made by Mr Justice Tomlin in Dashwood v Dashwood   [1927] WN 276, 64 LJNC 431, 71 Sol Jo 911 (1 Nov1927).  Mr Justice Tomlin subsequently issued a practice notice for such orders which is now contained in CPR 40.6  and para 3 of the Part 40B Practice Direction, In  Permavent Ltd and another v Makin [2020] EWHC 3495 (Pat) (17 Dec 2020) a dispute between the claim...

Jane Lamber t S.10 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines a work of joint authorship as "a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not distinct from that of the other author or authors." However, it was held by Hazel Williamson QC sitting as a judge of the High Court in  Bamgboye v Reed  [2002] EWHC 2922 (QB), [2002] EWHC 2922, [2004] EMLR 5 and implied by the Court of Appeal in Brooker and Another v Fischer [2008] Bus LR 1123, [2008] FSR 26, [2008] EWCA Civ 287, [2008] EMLR 13 that joint ownership is not necessarily the same as equal ownership. Where two or more collaborators claim to have contributed to a copyright work the task of the judge is to discern the nature and extent of each party's contribution in order to determine his or her share of the copyright. This issue came before Miss Recorder Michaels in  Minder Music Ltd and Another v Sharples [2015] EWHC 1454...

Jane Lambert Yesterday I told the tale of the claimant who sought an interim injunction and ended uo with a court order to pay £27 million damages to the defendant (see " Be careful for what you wish for when seeking an interim injunction - it may cost you plenty!"  23 May 2015). Today I have another cautionary tale. This time it is about the defendant which barred itself from contesting the validity of the claimant's patent by the terms of a settlement agreement. The issue arose in  Stretchline v H&M (UK) [2014] EWHC 3605 (Ch) (14 Oct 2014). In order to settle patent infringement proceedings in England and the USA the parties had entered a settlement agreement which provided "...... the Parties each agree, on behalf of themselves, their successors or assigns, not to commence or pursue, or voluntarily assist the pursuit of, any further proceedings relating to or arising from the claims against the other Parties, or their parents, subsidiari...