NIPC Law

As I indicated in  How the Intellectual Property Act 2014 changes British Patent Law   JD Supra 21 June 2014 s.16 of the Intellectual Property Act 2014 amends s.74A and s.74B of the Patents Act 1977 and inserts three new subsections into s.73. The upshot as explained in paragraph 4  and paragraph 5  of the IPO's guide Expansion of the Patent Opinions Service: business guidance is that the range of questions upon which an examiner's opinion can be obtained has been expanded and the Comptroller now has power to revoke patents which are found to be invalid. Where to find the Law The Patents Act 1977 has now been amended by art 3 and the Schedule  to The Intellectual Property Act 2014 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2014 (SI 2014 No 2330) (see Jane Lambert  The Intellectual Property Act 2014 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2014   6 Sept 2014) and corresponding changes to the Paten...

In 1962 Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni designed a floor lamp with a marble base and a curved lead to a bowl shaped reflector.  Those lamps, known as the Arco lamp and you can see a picture of one of those lamps in Achille Castiglioni's studio in Quick History: The Arco Lamp   in  Apartment Therapy. Original Arco lamps retail for £1,373 but it is possible to buy a reproduction for a fraction of that price as the Prime Minister's wife did recently (see "Samantha Cameron counts the cost of her repro lamp"   3 Oct 2011 The Guardian ) .   The reason why it is possible to buy a reproduction lamp is that s.52 (2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ( "the CDPA" )  provides that after the end of the period of 25 years from the end of the calendar year in which articles made from an original artistic work in which copyright subsists with the licence of the copyright owner are first marketed, that work may be copied by making articles of any ...

In  Community Trade Marks: Specsavers v ASDA   7 Feb 2012  NIPC Law I analysed the litigation that had taken place between two well known retailers in which the Court of Appeal considered how far an aggressive marketing campaign can go without infringing trade mark law. As I said in my case note Specsavers International Healthcare Ltd  and others ( " Specsavers" ) had brought an action for trade mark infringement and passing off against the supermarket chain Asda Stores Ltd. ( "ASDA" ) for using the marketing materials that I identified in my note and Asda counterclaimed for revocation of Community trade mark 1358589 depicted above ( "the wordless mark" ) for non-use. History of the Litigation The action and counterclaim came on for trial before Mr Justice Mann who found that the strapline "Be a real spec saver at ASDA" infringed the word mark under art 9 (1) (c) of the Community Trade Mark Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 ...