NIPC Law

Cyrillic Script Monument in Antarctica Author Inoceramid Bivalves   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Wikimedia Comm ons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Moylan, Coulson and Arnold)   Lish v The Northern Block Ltd and another [2026] EWCA Civ 497 (27 April 2026) This was an appeal by the claimant, Mariya Vasiliyevna Lish, against the order of David Stone on 22 Aug 2025 in which he struck out two of her claims as an abuse of process of the court for the reasons given in his judgment (see  Lish v The Northern Block Ltd and Another [2025] EWHC 2172 (Ch) 23 Aug 2025).   I discussed that judgment in  Copyright - Lish v The Northern Block Ltd.   on 30 Aug 2025. Background The   first   defendant, The Northern Block ("TNB"), was a type foundry which supplied typefaces or fonts in various alphabets to graphic designers, printers, manufacturers and others.  It was founded by the second defendant, Jonathan Hill. Mrs Lish was a typeface des...

Author  Tiia Monto   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Supreme Court (Lord Hodge, Lord Briggs, Lord Hamblen, Lord Burrows and Lord Stephens)  Dairy UK Ltd v Oatly AB [2026] UKSC 4 (11 Feb 2026) This was an appeal by Oatly AB ("Oatly") against the decision of the Court of Appeal in Dairy UK Ltd v Oatly AB [2024] EWCA Civ 1453 (29 Nov 2024) to set aside that of Mr Justice Richard Smith in  Oatly AB v Dairy UK Ltd [2023] EWHC 3204 (Ch) (14 Dec 2023) and restore the decision of Mrs Judi Pike on behalf of the Registrar of Trade Marks in Dairy UK Ltd v Oatley AB BL O/0049/23 17 Jan 2023. The Mark The mark in suit was POST MILK GENERATION which Oatley registered as a UK trade mark under trade mark number UK3445440  for  T-shirts in class 25,  oat‐based drinks as milk substitutes, oat‐based yoghurt substitute, oat‐based crème fraiche, oat‐based cooking cream and creamer in class 29,  oat‐based vanilla sauce ...

Nucleus of 103P/Hartley as imaged during a spacecraft flyby Author  NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD   Licence  Public Domain   Source  Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Patents Court (Michael Tappin KC) Thaler v The Co mptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks ( Re Permission to Appeal) [2025] EWHC 3072 (Ch) (21 Nov 2025) In Thaler v The Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Mark s [2025] EWHC 2202 (Ch) (1 Sept 2025), Mr Michael Tappin KC, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court, dismissed an appeal by Dr Stephen Thaler ("Dr Thaler") against the decision of Mr Andrew Bushell in Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks O/0764/24 of 24 Aug 2024.  I discussed that case in The Return of DABUS   on 7 Sept 2025. The case note summarizes the history of the litigation and links to other articles that I have written about DABUS ("Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience") and the efforts of its...

Alcatel-Lucent SA's Head Office in Boulogne-Bilancourt Author AnaBé   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Newey, Arnold and Snowden)  Alcatel Lucent SAS v Amazon Digital UK Ltd and other s [2025] EWCA Civ 43 (28 Jan 2025) This was the second of three cases in which the Court of Appeal had to consider whether a willing licensor of a portfolio of patents declared essential to one or more standards (" standard-essential patents" or "SEPs" ) would grant an implementer of those standards who has undertaken to take a licence to that portfolio on the terms to be determined by the Patents Court to be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory ("FRAND") an interim licence pending that determination.  The other cases were  Panasonic Holdings Corporation v Xiaomi Technology UK Ltd and others [2024] EWCA Civ 1143 (3 Oct 2024) which I discussed in  FRAND - Panasonic Holdings Corporation v Xiaomi Technology UK ...

  Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Arnold and Stuart-Smith and Lady Justice Falk)  Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and another v Astellas Pharma Inc [2023] EWCA Civ 880 (25 July 2023) This was an appeal against the dismissal of the claim by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Teva UK Ltd. ("Teva") for revocation of  European Patent (UK) 1 559 427 B1  for a "Remedy for overactive bladder comprising acetic acid anilide derivative as the active ingredient" and Supplementary Protection Certificate No. SPC/GB13/035  and judgment on a counterclaim by Astellas Pharma Inc. ("Astellas") for infringement (see Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd v Astellas Pharma Inc . [2022] EWHC 1316 (Pat) (1 June 2022), It came on before Lords Justices Arnold and Sturt-Smith and Lady Justice Falk on 17 and 18 July 2023.  Judgment was handed down on 25 July 2023.  By a unanimous judgment the Court dismissed the appeal (see  Teva Pharmaceutical Industr...

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 ...