NIPC Law

Author Odor  Licence Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 unported Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Lewison, Lindblom and Flaux)  A P Racing Ltd v Alcon Components Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1420 (21 June 2018)  This was an appeal by the claimant company, A P Racing Ltd ( "AP" ) , against the decision of His Honour Judge Hacon in AP Racing Ltd v Alcon Components Ltd [2017] EWHC 248 (IPEC) (15 Feb 2017).  His Honour held that one of 7 disk brake calipers manufactured by Alcon Components Ltd ( "Alcon" )  infringed UK patent no. GB 2,452,690  for a disc brake caliper body and a disc brake caliper comprising such a body but the other 6 did not. AP appealed against the finding of non-infringement in relation to 2 of Alcon's calipers, CAR 1249 and CAR 37. The appeal came on before Lords Justices Lewison, Lindblom and Flaux and the lead judgment was delivered by Lord Justice Lewison.  His lordship did not ment...

Author Anthony M. from Rome, Italy Licence  CC BY 2.0,   Source  Flickr, Wikipedia Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lady Justice Asplin and Lord Justice Kitchin)   The National Guild of Removers & Storers Ltd v Bee Moved Ltd and others [2018] EWCA Civ 1302 12 June 2018 This was an appeal from the decision of Mr Recorder Campbell QC in  The National Guild of Removers And Storers Ltd v Bee Moved Ltd and others [2016] EWHC 3192 (IPEC) (13 Dec 2016) which was an action for passing off.   The appeal was over what constitutes a misrepresentation for the purposes of passing off and whether new evidence should be allowed on appeal. The claimant company was described by Lady Justice Asplin as "a trade body which represents and provides services to its members in the removal and storage business".  Storage and removal companies that pay its fees and abide by its rules can describe themselves as a "member of the NGRS."...

Jane Lambert Not a lot of progress since my last Brexit Briefing in April. A little bit more of the draft withdrawal agreement has turned from white or amber to green but there has been no progress on the stumbling blocks of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic or the governance of the withdrawal agreement (or any other agreement between Britain and the EU). Without such agreement there can be no withdrawal agreement and hence no implementation or transition period. The problem for the government is that maintaining a control free border means accepting at least some of the disciplines of the EU which in turn means abandoning dreams of an independent trade policy. However, if Ed Balls and Peter Sands are right the benefits of having an independent trade policy are pretty illusory (see  What Sort of Trade Deal (if any) could the UK negotiate with the USA?   8 June 2018). I am increasingly of the view that there will be no withdrawal agreement by 29 ...

Since all patented inventions start out as trade secrets and many other inventions remain that way for various reasons, the implementation of Directive 2016/943 ("the Trade Secrets Directive") is an important day for inventors in the UK and throughout the rest of the EU. More

J ane Lambert Art 19 (1) of  Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure ("the trade secrets directive") requires each and every member state of the EU (including the UK for the time being) to  bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with that directive by 9 June 2018.  Accordingly, Mr  Sam Gyimah MP, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has signed The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations  SI 2018 No 597 ("the regulations") which will come into force on that day. Overview of the Regulations The regulations so not purport to transpose the whole directive into English law. The statutory instrument consists of 19 regulations most of which relate to time limits, court proc...

Jane Lambert A rather more interesting Brexit Briefing this month  because the UK has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement.  The article sets out the background to ratification and considers whether it will make a difference.  Also discussed are the proposals to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and indications that HMG will accept the backstop arrangements for birder checks between Great Britain and both parts of the island of Ireland set out in the draft withdrawal agreement notwithstanding political and constitutional challenges to which that could lead. Finally, there is the agenda for discussions on the future partnership between the UK and EU after Brexit which would include services and some encouraging remarks about the city of London from Monsieur Barnier at the Eurofi High Level Seminar in Sofia on 26 April 2018. More

Jane Lambert Today is World Intellectual Property Day . It commemorates the day on which the day in 1970 on which the  Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization  ("WIPO") came into force. Since the day has been marked by events around the world to promote awareness of intellectual property . Most of those events follow a common theme.  This year's theme is  Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity .  The WIPO website explains: "Every day women come up with game-changing inventions and life-enhancing creations that transform lives and advance human understanding from astrophysics to nanotechnology and from medicine to artificial intelligence and robotics. And in the creative sphere, whether in the movies, animation, music, fashion, design, sculpture, dance, literature, art and more, women are re-imagining culture, testing the limits of artistry and creative expression, drawing us into new worlds of experie...

Huawei's Head Office Author: Dr Bernd Gross Licence  Copyright waived by the owner Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Henry Carr)  Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and others   [2018] EWHC 808 (Pat) Although the precise relief sought in these proceedings is not mentioned in this judgment, it must have been a strike out or stay of a claim for patent infringement.  The applicants were the Chinese companies,  Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd . ("Huawei") and the ZTE Corporation  ("ZTE") and their respective British subsidiaries which are defendants to a claim by  Conversant Wireless Licensing S.A.R.L ("Conversant") for patent infringement. The patents alleged to have been infringed are part of a worldwide portfolio that Conversant has offered to license on FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms. I discussed such licences in FRAND   on   8 Oct 2017 and FRAND - a...

Jane Lambert The phrase, "the right to be forgotten", was coined by the Audiencia Nacional  (the Spanish high court) in its questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") pursuant to art 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in Case C‑131/12 Mario Costeja Gonzalez v Google Spain SL and another   [2014] 2 All ER (Comm) 301, [2014] All ER (EC) 717, [2014] 1 QB 1022, [2014] 3 CMLR 50, [2014] ECDR 16, 36 BHRC 589, ECLI:EU:C:2014:317, [2014] EMLR 27, EU:C:2014:317, [2014] 3 WLR 659, [2014] EUECJ C-131/12, [2014] QB 1022. In that case the Audiencia Nacional asked the CJEU "whether Article 2(b) of Directive 95/46 i s to be interpreted as meaning that the activity of a search engine as a provider of content which consists in finding information published or placed on the internet by third parties, indexing it automatically, storing it temporarily and, finally, making it available to internet users according to a p...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Author Skip88 Licence  Copyright waived by the author Source  Wikipedia Jane Lambert According to TaylorWessing's Patent Map , England and Wales remains the most expensive country in Europe in which to contest a patent action. The European Patent Office reports that the UK lay 9th in the number of European patent applications that were filed in 2017 trailing not just the USA, Japan, China and Germany which are considerably bigger in population and GDP than the UK but France, South Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands that are the same size or smaller (see  European patent filings per country of origin ). It seems likely that the UK's relatively lacklustre performance in the number of European patent applications is connected to the high cost of enforcement.  I have plenty of anecdotal evidence from my practice, patent clinics and inventors' clubs to support that contention. One of the reason...

Skylon Spaceplane Author WD Graham (GW Simulations) Licence Reproduction licensed by the author Source Wikipedia   Jane Lambert In Commercial Exploitation of Space: Space Industry Act 2018   10 April 2018 I mentioned the government's aim to expand the British share of the global space market from the present 6.5% to 10% by 2030. Much of that growth will come from the development of small satellite delivery vehicles and suborbital transports which will take off and land on conventional runways. The development of facilities for such spacecraft is likely to stimulate local economic activity considerably.  I mentioned the cluster of aerospace businesses that is already gathering at Cornwall Airport Newquay  in NIPC Cornwall   this morning.  Newquay is one of a number of airports around the coast of Great Britain planning to handle space traffic. Such facilities fall into the definition of "spaceports" provded by s.3 (2) of the Space Indu...

Author Mike Gimelbelb Licence Copyright waived by author Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert For many years space was a government activity largely because most of the early uses of the technology were military and the vehicles that launched transported people and objects into space were developed from missiles. Gradually, civilian uses were found for the technology such as satellite broadcasting, remote sensing and telecommunications.  The value of the global space market is between £155 and £190 billion and likely to rise to £400 billion by 2030 according to the  Space Sector Report 1  which was prepared for the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the European Union. The Industrial Strategy white paper   states that   the United Kingdom has about 6.5% of that market and that the government hopes to increase that share to 10% by 2030. In order to achieve that goal the British government has to update the legal framework that regulates the ...

University of Leicester Author NotFromUtrecht Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Miss Recorder Michaels)  Student Union Lettings Limited v Essex Student Lets Limited [2018] EWHC 419 (IPEC) (7 March 2018)  This was an action for trade mark infringement and passing off . The Mark The mark alleged to have been infringed was the word SULETS.  It was registered as a trade mark under registration number  UK00003101453  with effect from 27 March 2015 for the following services: Class 36: " Accommodation letting agency services; property management services; property leasing services; land management and leasing services; advisory services in relation to all the aforesaid" Class 37 : "Property development (construction) services; property renovation, repair and maintenance services; property cleaning services; advisory services in relat...