NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke)   Wang Zeng International Ltd v Bing Bing Foods Ltd and others [2026] EWHC 360 (IPEC) (20 Feb 2026) This was an action for trade mark infringement and a counterclaim for revocation or invalidation of the claimant's marks.  The action and counterclaim came on for trial before Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke on 17 and 18 Nov 2025.  By para [122] of her judgment in  Wang Zeng International Ltd v Bing Bing Foods Ltd and Others [2026] EWHC 360 (IPEC), which she handed down on 20 Feb 2026, the learned judge dismissed the counterclaim and found for the claimant on the claim. The Parties The claimant and first defendant were private companies incorporated in England and Wales with limited liability. In her judgment, Judge Melissa Clarke sometimes referred to the claimant as WZI ("Wang Zeng International Limited") and the first defendant as BBF (" Bing Bing Foods Limited" ).  ...

Intellectual Property Office Crown copyright: all rights reserved, reproduced with kind permission of the  IPO Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Office (Mrs C L Davies) Re Adobe Systems Inc.'s Application   O/549/19 19 Sept 2019 This was an appeal by Adobe Systems Incorporated against the examiner's refusal to allow its application for a patent  for a method and system for recommending software actions to create an image and recommending images to demonstrate the effects of software actions to proceed to grant. The examiner objected to the application on the grounds that it was for a program for a computer and a mathematical method within the meaning of s.1 (2) (a) and (c) of the Patents Act 1977. That subsection declares that mathematical methods and programs for computers among other things are not inventions for the purposes of the Act but that declaration is subject to the proviso that it "shall prevent anything from being treated as a...

The IPO in Newport - where the hearing officers are to be found Crown Copyright Licensed by the IPO Jane Lambert An exception to the rule that a trade mark registration cannot be challenged for non-use in the first 5 years after registration is where the application to register the trade mark was made in "bad faith". The legislative mechanism is provided by s.47 (1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994: "The registration of a trade mark may be declared invalid on the ground that the trade mark was registered in breach of section 3 or any of the provisions referred to in that section (absolute grounds for refusal of registration)." Subsection (6) of s.3 provides: "A trade mark shall not be registered if or to the extent that the application is made in bad faith." But what does "bad faith" mean exactly? In  Hotel Cipriani SRL and Others v Cipriani (Grosvenor Street) Ltd and others   [2009] Bus LR D81, [2008] EWHC 3032 (Ch), [2...