NIPC Law

Author Ashte   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0  Source  Wikipedia "Trilfinders " Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Judge Hacon)   Trailfinders Ltd v Travel Counsellors Ltd  and other s [2020] EWHC 591 (IPEC) (12 March 2020) This is the first case that I have seen in which the Trade Secrets Directive ( Directive (EU) 2016/943 of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure (OJ 15.6.2016 L 157/1)  has been considered by an English judge. I have written quite a lot about that Directive and I have always taken the view that it creates new rights and obligations while leaving the law of confidence more or less intact (see Jane Lambert The Trade Secrets Directive 7 July 2020 NIPC Law). In   Trailfinders Ltd v Travel Counsellors Ltd and others  [2020] EWHC 591 His Honour Judge Hacon quoted in full the first 7 articles of t...

Most people know that design right is a relatively new intellectual property right which was created by  Part III  of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ( "CDPA" ) which came into force on the 1 August 1989. The right protects original designs (that is to say, the design of any aspect of the shape or configuration (whether internal or external) of the whole or part of an article. It is to be distinguished from artistic copyright that protects artistic works from reproduction under  Part I  of the CDPA and rights in new designs having individual character protected by registration under the Registered Designs Act 1949  as amended. Legislative History In its 1986 white paper, “ Intellectual Property and Innovation ” (Cm 9712), the government of the day recognized that the protection of functional articles under the Copyright Act 1956 was highly controversial. It noted the objections that: the term of protection, which was then 50 years plus the life of the author rathe...