NIPC Law

Margaret Thatcher's birth place in Grantham   Source   Wikipedia According to Wikiquote , "frit" is an unusual Lincolnshire dialect abbreviation of 'frightened' which Mrs Thatcher evidently recalled from her Grantham childhood.  I am reminded of the word for two reasons.  First, Lady Thatcher is reported by today's Independent  to have said that she wishes she had never gone into politics. A report that prompted my mischievous and slightly unfair but quite irresistible  tweet  that perhaps for the first time the former Prime Minister has spoken for the nation. The second reason is that I got round to reading Judge Birss QC's judgment in Merck Sharp Dohme Corporation and Another v Teva Pharma BV and Another [2012] EWHC 627 (Pat) (15 March 2012) which concerned the circumstances in which a quia timet action and indeed interim injunctive relief are justified.  "Quia timet", as Margaret Roberts could no doubt once have told us when she was ...

On 15 Nov 2011 the government announced that a new small claims service will be introduced at the Patents County Court (PCC)  with a view to helping small and medium sized businesses to protect their copyright, trade marks and designs.(see the press release "New Intellectual Property Court process will boost UK business" ). Such a service had been recommended by Jackson ( Review of Civil Litigation Costs , Final Report Dec 2009 at page 257) and Hargreaves ( "Digital Opportunity, A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth" , Final Report page 85).  Gowers had favoured a slightly different service, namely a fast track scheme for lower value IP cases though his 54th recommendation went no further than a review by the Department of  Constitutional Affairs (see page 117 of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property , June 2006). In the consultation document "Introducing a Small Claims Track into the Patents County Court"  which the Intellectual Property Off...