NIPC Law

Jane Lambert There has been a passionate debate about the rôle of intellectual property ("IP") in producing and distributing vaccines against COVID 19 in low and mid-income countries. In a  communication to the Council of TRIPS dated 2 Oct 2020  (IP/C/W/669), the Indian and South African governments proposed relaxing some of the treaty obligations that require countries to protect the intellectual assets of their own and other countries' nationals. As a citizen, I have my views on that issue but in this article, I write only as a lawyer who has spent the better part of a lifetime advising and representing businesses and individuals on IP.   The Patent Waiver Proposal The proposal had gathered support from the governments of other low and mid-income countries, the former President of the Republic of Ireland and  Chair of the Elders ,  Mary Robinson  and  Baroness Chakrabarti.  the former shadow Attorney-General. and from the non-governmental o...

Source DEFRA   Licence Open Government Licence Jane Lambert As the United Kingdom is a member of the World Trade Organization, Her Majesty's Government is required to protect geographical indications by Section 3  of the  Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") .  Until the end of 2020, those obligations will continue to be discharged on the United Kingdon's behalf by the European Union pursuant to art 127 (1) of the  Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community ("the withdrawal agreement").   The arrangements by which the obligations are discharged at present are described in the following DEFRA guidance note, EU protected food names: how to register food or drink products   22 May 2015 and summarized in my article Geographical Indications - "If it's outside Yorkshire it's not worth ..................!...

Jane Lambert Chancery Division  (Lord Justice Arnold)  Sky Ltd and others v Skykick UK Ltd and another [2020] EWHC 1735 (Ch) (2 July 2020) On 9 May 2020, I wrote in Trade marks - Sky v Skykick, The Final Chapter : "Thus endeth a lawsuit that required three hearings before Lord Justice Arnold as he now is, one to the Court of Appeal and another to the CJEU. Sky scraped home on electronic mail services but not much else. The Sky companies lost their passing off claim and part of their goods and services specification. The excursion to Luxembourg did result in a ruling that lack of clarity and precision is not fatal to a trade mark registration and that bad faith in applying for registration of some goods and services does not vitiate the whole mark." Only the litigation didn't end.  There was a further hearing before Lord Justice Arnold on 2 July 2020 to argue the terms of the final order (see  Sky Ltd and others v Skykick UK Ltd and a...

Author Dominik Hundhammer Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert In Geographical Indications   I quoted the WIPO definition  of a geographical indication ("GI") as  "a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin".   I also stated that the UK has an international obligation to protect such signs under art 22 (2)  of the TRIPS Agreement which is annexed to the WTO Agreement as Annex 1C. In Geographical Indications after Brexit   6 Oct 2018 NIPC Branding I noted that this country had discharged that obligation through EU legislation and that the UK will need to establish its own GI regime in order to comply with art 22 (2) TRIPS whether it leaves the EU with or without a withdrawal agreement.  On 5 Fev 2019 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ("DEFRA") published Protecting food and drink names if there's no Brexit dea...

The Countryside of Gelderland Author Janneman Licence Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported Source Wikipedia Gelderland Jane Lambert Court of Justice of the European Union ( K. Lenaerts, President, R. Silva de Lapuerta, Vice-President, J.-C. Bonichot, A. Arabadjiev, M. Vilaras (Rapporteur), E. Regan, T. von Danwitz and C. Toader, Presidents of Chamber, A. Rosas, E. Juhász, M. Ilešič, M. Safjan, C.G. Fernlund, C. Vajda and S. Rodin, Judges)    C-310/17 ,  Levola Hengelo BV v Smilde Foods BV  ECLI:EU:C:2018:899, [2018] EUECJ C-310/17, EU:C:2018:899 (13 Nov 2018) This is one of the most remarkable cases that I have ever read.   It is important because it greatly increases the range of creations in which copyright can subsist.   I first thought it was a bit of a joke because that is how it was presented in the press (see  Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court   13 Nov 2018 BBC website)....

Chartreuse Author Jarv Licence Free Art Licence  Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Patents subsist for 20 years, copyrights for the life of the author plus 70 years but the obligation neither to disclose nor make use of business or technical information that is disclosed in confidence can last indefinitely.  The recipe for Chartreuse is a case in point.  That distinctive liqueur has been emulated and occasionally counterfeited but never replicated. All members of the World Trade Organization are obliged to protect undisclosed information from unauthorized use and disclosure by art 39 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") but different countries including different EU member states discharge that obligation in different ways. Such differences affect the functioning of the internal market.  To minimize those differences the European Council adopted the trade secrets directive (Dir...

Jane Lambert In anticipation of our departure from the European Union. Her Majesty's government and businesses in the United Kingdom have been exploring the possibility of developing new markets for British goods and services overseas. Only this week, the Prime Minister visited Saudi Arabia and Jordan (see  Prime Minister's visit to Saudi Arabia and Jordan: April 2017   4 April 2017 HMG's website) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in India as part of the 9th UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue (see  UK-India economic and trade relations to take centre stage on two-day visit   4 April 2017 HMG's website). One of the advantages of trading within the EU is that the legal systems of the member states have been harmonized over the years and supplemented with a growing body of Union law. This is as true of intellectual property  as of everything else with the result that the legal protection of intellectual assets  in any of the...

The UK and the remaining Member States of the EU Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert There was a bad reason for voting to leave the European Union and a good one. The bad reason, which was probably the one for which most leavers voted, was that art 45 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union  stimulated competition in the labour market. The good reason, of which I was and remain highly sceptical but which I hope turns out to be right, is that Union law imposed a break on British enterprise and that its disappearance, once art 50 (3) of the Treaty on European Union takes effect, will stimulate business. I premise this article in the hope that our people and politicians genuinely seek economic expansion. Introduction to IP Intellectual property ( "IP" ) is the collective name for the bundle of rights that protect investment in intellectual assets ( "IA" ), that is to say branding, design, technology and works of art and lite...