IP Glossary O

Revised 25 Jan 2017

Obviousness
Lack of an inventive step. One of the grounds for revoking a patent. To be valid an invention must involve an inventive step, which means it must not be obvious to a skilled person having regard to the state of the art (s1(1)(b) and s3 of the Patents Act 1977.
Opposition
Separate meanings in patents and trade marks. In patents it is a procedure for the revocation of a European patent by the European Patent Office available in the first 9 months after the publication of the grant provided by art 99 of the European Patent Convention. In trade marks it is a procedure for opposing an application to register a trade mark.

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Copyright in Photographs: Temple Island Collections and Creation Records

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In our very first NIPC newsletter which we published in June 1997 I wrote a case note on Mr. Justice Lloyd's decision in  Creation Records Ltd. and Others v News Group Newspapers Ltd   [1997] EMLR 444, [1997] EWHC Ch 370, (1997) 16 Tr LR 544. In that case Mr. Noel Gallagher of Oasis and others applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain The Sun from offering for sale and selling a poster of Oasis that featured a photo of an elaborate set that included a white Rolls Royce in a country club swimming pool. The Sun's photograph was very similar to the photograph that appeared on an Oasis album cover. The similarity arose because The Sun's photographer shot the same scene at roughly the same time and from the same angle as Mr. Gallagher's photographer but he did not reproduce any part of Oasis's print or negative. The learned judge held that the plaintiffs had no arguable case for infringement of copyright though he accepted that they had an arguable case for br...
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"What is meant by "Due Cause" in s.10 (3) of the Trade Marks Act? The Red Bull Case

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Copyright: Creation Records Ltd. v News Group

It is trite law that if two photographers take identical pictures of the same scene at the same time from the same position each of their photographs is an original work and neither infringes the copyright in the other. However, much of the skill of a photographer lies in his choice of subject and the arrangement of the scene. The question whether copyright subsists independently in such an arrangement arose in Creation Records Ltd. v News Group Newspapers Ltd . (1997) The Times 27 April.   The Facts A swimming pool at a country club was drained and various props including a white Rolls Royce motor car assembled for a photograph of a well-known group of musicians for reproduction on their album cover. Although the public was not admitted to the session certain fans of the group who happened to be there were allowed to photograph the scene before official pictures were taken. A freelance photographer who was booked into the club photographed the scene during the session. One of his pict...
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