NIPC Law

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)] Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Birss)  Performing Right Society Ltd v Qatar Airways Group QC S [2020] EWHC 1872 (Ch) (17 July 2020) This was an application by the defendant airline to stay an action for copyright infringement on grounds of forum non conveniens and case management.  The action has been brought by the Performing Right Society which alleges that the inflight entertainment systems of the defendant's aircraft infringe the copyright laws of the countries in which those aircraft are present at any one time.   The application came on before Mr Justice Birss on 18 June 2020.   He handed down his judgment in  Performing Right Society Ltd v Qatar Airways Group QCS [2020] EWHC 1872 on 17 July 2020. Referring to Lord Goff's speech in  Spiliada ...

Basher Eyre / Junction of Fetter Lane and Rolls Buildings Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Birss)   Nicoventures Trading Ltd v Philip Morris Products, SA ( [2020] EWHC 1594 (Pat) (16 June 2020) This was an application by Philip Morris Products SA ("Philip Morris") to expedite the trial of an action that it had brought against British American Tobacco ("BAT") for the invalidation of European patents (UK) 3 398 460 and 3 491 944 for heated tobacco products which had been invented by John Howard Robinson and others ("the Robinson patents").  BAT resisted the application on the ground that the case for expedition had not been made out. However, there was also a contingent cross-application by BAT for expedition of the trial of an action that it had brought against Philip Morris for the invalidation of the Robinson patents and a counterclaim for the infringement of European patents (UK) 3 248 484, 3 248 486, and 3 248 483 for heated ...

Author   Hellerhoff   Licence  CC BY-SA 3,0 Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Birss ) Evalve Inc and others v Edwards Lifesciences Lt d [2020] EWHC 1524 (Pat) (18 June 2020) In    Evalve Inc and others v Edwards Lifesciences Ltd #1 [ 2020] EWHC 514 (Pat) (12 March 2020)). Mr Justce Birss held that two patents that protected the market for a device known as the MitraClip were valid and infringed.   In  E valve Inc and others v Edwards Lifesciences Ltd (#2) [2020] EWHC 513 (Pat) (12 March 2020) Mr Justice Birss rejected the defendant's contention that it should be allowed to market its product notwithstanding the judgment on the ground that some patients were assisted by a product that competed with the MitraClip but not by the MitraClip itself. I blogged about those cases in   Patents - Evalve Inc. and Others v Edwards Lifesciences Ltd. #1   27 March 2020 NIPC Law and Patents - Evalve Inc. and Others v Edwa...

Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Justice Birss)  Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and others [2020] EWHC 256 (Pat) (10 Feb 2020 This was an application by the claimant, Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL  for disclosure of the licence agreements and assignments relating to 3G and 4G patents that had been entered by the defendants, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd., ZTE (UK) Limited and their British subsidiaries. Substantially the same application had been made to His Honour Judge Hacon at the case management conference in the action which took place in July 2019. The later application was heard by Mr Justice Birss who delivered judgment in  Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and others [2020] EWHC 256 (Pat) on 10 Feb 2020. The reference to the CMC in the transcript of Mr Justice Birss's judgment is [2009] EWHC 1982 (Pat) but I think that must be a misprint for [2019]. Judge Hacon refused Conv...

Smartphones Author Senado Federal  Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source  Wikipedia Smartphone Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Birss)  Warner Music UK Ltd and another v Tunein Inc [2019] EWHC 3374 (Ch) (18 Dec 2019) The claimants, and the groups they represent, own or hold the exclusive licences to copyright in sound recordings of music. Together, they account for more than half the market for digital sales of recorded music in the UK and about 43% globally.   If a radio station wishes to play a record in the claimant's repertoire it needs a licence from the claimant which it can obtain directly from one of the claimants or indirectly from a collecting society. As most radio stations broadcast primarily to listeners who can receive their radio signals those licences tend to be restricted to the country in which they are located.  It is now possible for radio stations to broadcast over the internet. Some stations such a...

Author Ordnance Survey Licence OS OpernDaya    Source Wikipedia Ordnance Surb=vet Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Birss) 77m Ltd v Ordnance Survey Ltd [2019] EWHC 3007 (Ch) (8 Nov 2019) Ordnance Survey Ltd . ("OS") is the national mapping service for the United Kingdom. Since the 18th century, it has published very accurate and detailed maps of the topography of the nation that are useful for all kinds of business as well as hikers, cyclists and other leisure users.  More recently,  OS has developed a  product called AddressBase   which matches 28 million Royal Mail postal address to unique property reference numbers. A startup company called 77m Ltd ("77") developed a similar product named Matrix using a variety of licensed or publicly available materials including some that  OS had created.  77 contended that it had created Matrix without infringing any of OS's intellectual property rights ("IPR") but...

Author Sjiong   Licence    CC BY-SA 2.0  Source Wikipedia High Court   Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Birss)  Warner Music UK Ltd and others v TuneIn Inc [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch) (1 Nov 2019) This was an action for copyright infringement brought by the copyright owners or exclusive licensees of sound recordings that account for more than half the market for digital sales of recorded music in the UK and about 43% globally against the audio streaming service TuneIn Inc,  which is said to have 75 million active users around the world with access to about 100,000 radio stations.  This action had been heard by Mr Justice Henry Carr who died before he could deliver judgment. Rather than insist on a full retrial, the parties agreed that Mr Justice Birss should read the materials, including the transcripts of the hearing and then hear the parties' arguments.  The hearing before Mr Justice Birss took place on ...