NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Mellor) Nador Cott Protection SAS v Asda Stores Ltd and another [2026] EWHC 553 (Pat) (12 March 2026) This was a claim by Nador Cott Protection SAS against ASDA Stores Ltd, and International Procurement and Logistics Ltd. for the alleged infringement of Plant Breeders' Right number 28016 by importing    Tang Gold oranges into the UK and retailing them to the British public.  The action came on for trial before Mr Justice Mellor on 25 and 26 Nov 2025.  By para [359]  of his judgment in  Nador Cott Protection SAS v Asda Stores Ltd and Another [2026] EWHC 553 (Pat), which he handed down on 12 March 2026, the learned judge dismissed the action. Issues His lordship set out the issues in the trial as follows: whether the Tang Gold fruit was a dependent variety of Nador Cott's ("the dependent variety issue"), and if it was whether Nador Cott Protection had lost its right of action because it  had  a rea...

Author Renardo la vulpo   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed   Source Wikimedia Common s   Jane Lambert Enlarged Board of Appeal  (C. Josefsson, I. Beckedorf, F. Blumer, T. Bokor, P. Catallozzi, P. Gryczka and A. Ritzka)  G 0002/21 Syngenta Ltd v Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd  23 March 2023 European patent No. 2 484 209   ("the patent") has been granted to Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. ("Sumitomo") for a mixture of thiamethoxam and other compounds in accordance with a formula disclosed in the specification.  That mixture produces an insecticidal activity that is greater than would be achieved by any of those compounds administered on its own ("the invention"). Syngenta Limited ("Syngenta") objected to the patent on the grounds that the invention was not new or obvious , that it had not been properly disclosed and it included added matter . The European Patent Convention ("EPC") provides a procedure for the revocation of a patent known as "oppositi...

Century and Harbor Freeway Interchange Author Remi Jouan   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, Dame Victoria Sharp, President, Lord Justice Bean)  HRH the Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 1810 (2 Dec 2021) This was an appeal against the decisions of Mr Justice Warby in  HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2021] EWHC 273 (Ch)  on 11 Feb 2021 and HRH Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd . [2021] EWHC 1245 (Ch) on 12 May 2021.   I discussed those judgments in  Summary Judgment - Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers   and   Copyright - Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd   on 12 Feb and 13 June 2021 respectively.  The Litigation The duchess sued the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline after they had reproduced and commented upon large passages from a handwritten letter ...

Bitcoin ATM Author Martin E Walder   Licence CC-BY 3.0   Source Wikipedia Cryptocurrency Jane Lambert in its Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts ,  the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce ("UKJT") published the opinions of  Lawrence Akka QC , David Quest QC , Matthew Lavy and Sam Goodman  ("the drafting committee") on a number of legal questions relating to cryptoassets and smart contracts where there are areas of perceived uncertainty. The Institutions The UKJT is chaired by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court and consists of Lawrence Akka QC, Sir Nicholas Green, Chair of the Law Commission of England and Wales, as an observer, Richard Hay of Linklaters LLP. Peter Hunn of the Accord Project, Mary Kyle of the City of London Corporation, Christopher Woolard of the Financial Conduct Authority and Mr Justice Zacaroli.  The publication was delivered by the LawTech Delivery Panel  which describes its...

Rolls Building Author Basher Eyre Licence CC BT-SA 2,0 Source Wikipedia Rolls Building Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr David Stone)  Volumatic Ltd v Ideas for Life Ltd [2019] EWHC 2273 (IPEC) (29 Aug 2019) This was a claim by Volumatic Ltd ("Volumatic") for specific performance of an agreement that was alleged to have neem entered by Ideas for Life Ltd. ("IFL") for the assignment of "all property rights" including certain patents in a banknote pouch for Volumatic's cash counting machines to be designed by IIFL. IFL resisted the claim on a number of grounds including whether the alleged agreement (referred to in the judgment as "the Agreement") was legally binding and, if it was, whether it could be specifically enforced. At the case management conference, Judge Hacon had listed the following issues to be tried: "1. Whether the Agreement (alternatively stages 2 and 3 of the Agreement) has contra...

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...

Author Ltak Licence  Creative Commons-Attribution Share Alike 3.0 unported Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Arnold)  Parainen Pearl Shipping Ltd and Others v Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi AS and Others [2017] EWHC 2570 (Pat) (18 Oct 2017)  This was a dispute between a company that had been incorporated in the Marshall Islands  and its Cypriot subsidiaries on the one hand and three companies that had been incorporated in Norway on the other over whether the Patents Court had jurisdiction to hear an action for a declaration of non-infringement relating to the bulk discharge system of a Bahamas registered cement carrier that was alleged to infringe the British, Finnish and Swedish designations of European patent number 2 032 426 "System and method for discharge of bulk material from a ship".   Particulars of the ship together with photographs of her can be found on the Marine Traffic  website. The Dispute The...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert The reaction of Brenda from Bristol to Mrs May's announcement of a snap election earlier this year made her an internet star.   There was a similar reaction to the government's introduction of a new Data Protection Bill last week and one can understand why.  Three statutes, one Council regulation and a directive in a little over 30 years for the processing of personal data is quite a lot of legislation - especially for an activity that the United States leaves largely unregulated. The Younger Report  Towards the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, concern was expressed in a number of countries about the power of computers to gather, collate and disseminate personal information. In the UK, such concerns were referred to a committee chaired by Sir Kenneth Younger  that had been appointed to consider privacy.  In its report - the Younger Committee Report on Privacy 1972 (Cmnd 5012) - the committee found no...