NIPC Law

Barbara Cookson Chartered Patent Agent/European Patent Attorney Filemot Technology Law The Rt Hon Sir Francis Jacobs KCMG QC and former ECJ Advocate General was the surprise guest speaker at the Hogarth Chambers Summer IP Seminar on Wednesday 15th July. Quietly spoken and urbane, his manner reflected the lugubrious nature of ECJ proceedings that are now seriously frustrating the IP community. It seems that the ECJ, or at least its Advocate Generals, can be quietly frustrated too. Jacobs spoke of being minded on one occasion to invoke Lewis Carroll and the Hunting of the Snark and quote that “what I tell you three times is true”. T he admirable role of the ECJ is to interpret European law in a manner that will enable all national courts to apply it consistently. Its procedure is relatively straightforward. References may be made by any national court or tribunal and must be made by the highest where doubts arise. The Reference is translated into all the national languages and circ...

During November 2008 the well known legal consultants, Altman Weil Inc., polled 1,292 general counsel (in-house legal advisors ) in the USA as to whether they faced budget cuts in 2009 and, if so, what they planned to do about them.    The consultancy’s findings are published in a report entitled “ Law Department Cost Control ” which can be downloaded from its website. Although there were only 115 respondents they represented some of the biggest corporations in America.     Some 43.8% had annual revenues of between US$2 and 10 billion and a further 24.3% had revenues of over US$10 billion. The respondents were not identified but businesses of that size are likely to have worldwide interests including some in the UK. Nearly 70% were public companies, 23% private companies and the rest partnerships, not for profit or government agencies. Over two thirds of those respondents had very substantial legal departments. Some 6.2% employed more than 100 lawyers. The most depressing finding...

On the very day that Rio Tinto announced 14,000 redundancies, Sony another 8,000, Mercedes short term working and Woolworths finally gave up the ghost The Independent published an extract of a speech by Dersmond Browne (the Chairperson-Elect of the English and Welsh bar) entitled    'The Bar is not for me' – words no one should say to themselves"   Giving Browne as much credit as one can, it was good that he bemoaned the under-representation of black, minority, ethnic barristers in the self-employed bar, on the bench and in silk. I've just become a member of a minority group (and quite a vulnerable one at that) and appreciate his concern. The problem is that the only way to change that balance without a purge of those already there would be to recruit more barristers. At a time when every other industry in the world is cutting capacity ours must be the only one that is actually talking about expanding it.   That, of course, is ridiculous. Let there be no mistake, if th...

I have just returned from the first two sessions of the Bar Council's Access to the Bar Day  at Inner Temple.  The first was on public access and the second on licensed access. I wanted to attend the last session which was " targeted at members of the Bar and the Judiciary" (and the only one to carry CPD points) but it began nearly 4 hours after the end of the previous session. It was bad enough hanging around the conference room that Inner Temple rather grandiosely call "the Parliament Chamber" for more than an hour between the public access and licensed access sessions.  I found those gaps very annoying.   Having set off at an unearthly hour to make the 10:00 session I did not relish a 4 hour drive from Luton through the night after the end of the last session.   And I have work to do just like every other barrister. I am sure that the Bar Council would have attracted a much bigger audience had it staged the second session immediately after the first, and the...

When I reviewd the new Patent Court Guide on 6 Nov   I pointed out that it did not have a specimen order.    That has now been corrected and the complete guide appears in its full glory at  http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/files/Patents_Court_Guide_as_revised_on_18_November_2008.pdf .   However, the old one is still on the Courts Service website. So beware.

Regardless of whether the steps agreed in Paris today will work (see " EU chiefs confront markets crisis " BBC website 12 Oct 2008), markets will eventually stabilize. However, that is unlikely to be the end of the economic crisis as there is every indication of a downturn more prolonged and more severe than any that most IP practitioners have experienced in our working lives.    The purpose of IP is to protect investment in the branding, design, technology and creative works that give one supplier and edge over his or her competitors. As it can safely be assumed that overall demand for products and services generally is likely to slacken the question that I and no doubt many other practitioners have been considering is whether that will create more work for IP practitioners or less. Views of Other Practitioners Some IP practitioners seem quite bullish. According to Crain's , Ian Morris of Kuit Steinart Levy, said: "t he rest of the economy may be feeling nervo...