NIPC Law

Jane Lambert Court of Appeal Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co Ltd   [2017] EWCA Civ 266 (12 April 2017) Lords Justices Gross and Floyd and Mr Justice Arnold  In  Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Others [2015] EWHC 3366 (Pat) (23 Nov 2015), Unwired Planet sued Huawei, Samsung and Google for patent infringement. The patent in suit was European patent 2,229,744 entitled Method and arrangement in a wireless communication network  which is concerned with polling for a wireless communication network. The trial judge, Mr Justice Birss, explained at para [2] of his judgment that "In this context the word "poll" refers to a message sent by a transmitter of data to the receiver to ask the receiver to tell the transmitter what information has been received. In the context of the mobile radio networks in this case, the poll asks the receiver to send a "status report". When the trans...

Offshore Wind Farm Photo Anke Hueper Source Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Jane Lambert Wobben Properties GmbH v Siemens Public Ltd Company and Others [2017] EWCA Civ 5 (19 Jan 2017) The claimant company, Wobben Properties GmbH is the registered proprietor of European patent   EP0847496 for a method of operating a wind power station.  The invention is described as follows: "The invention pertains to a method of operating a wind power station, especially to limit the load on a wind power station, preferably a pitch-controlled wind power station. The invention also pertains to a corresponding wind power station. The invention is designed to increase the output of a wind power station and yet limit the load on the wind power station at very high wind velocities. This is accomplished by reducing the power of the wind power station as a function of wind velocity as of a predetermined wind velocity, preferably by reducing the opera...

Topshop, Leeds Photo Wikipedia In  Fenty and Others v Arcadia Group Brands Ltd and another     [2013] EWHC 2310 (Ch), [2013] WLR(D) 310 Mr Justice Birss gave judgment to Robyn Rihanna Fenty (better known as Rihanna ) and her corporate licensing companies against Top Shop for selling a t-shirt that reproduced a photo of the singer. The claim was brought not for infringement of copyright since the owner of the copyright in the photograph had licensed the reproduction of his work but for passing off. Rihanna and her companies had claimed that the t-shirt misrepresented authorization or approval of the manufacture and distribution of the garments and that such misrepresentation damaged her commercial activities. I wrote about the case in Passing off - Fenty v Topshop   10 Sept 2013 and readers are referred  to that note for an appreciation of the judgment. A lot of people were surprised by Mr Justice Birss's decision including me t...

"The Color Purple" is a novel by Alice Walker  which won its author the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction  in 1983. if you have not read the book here is Wikipedia's summary of the plot .  It is a great book with a great story. The colour purple (or rather pantone 2685C) is only slightly less gripping. It is the subject of a tussle between two of the world's largest confectionery companies the latest stage of which has just ended in the Court of Appeal (   Société Des Produits Nestlé S.A. v Cadbury UK Ltd .  [2013] EWCA Civ 1174 (4 Oct 2013)). It started on 15 Oct 2004 when Cadbury Limited ( “Cadbury” ) applied to register "the colour purple (Pantone 2685C), as shown on the form of application, applied to the whole visible surface, or being the predominant colour applied to the whole visible surface, of the packaging of the goods" as a trade mark for the following goods: " Class 30 : Chocolate in bar and tablet form, chocolate confect...