NIPC Law

By Taner Yildirim ( The National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST ) -  Public Domain ,  Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke)  Boghossian v IOP Publishing Ltd .  [2025] EWHC 3317 (IPEC) (17 Dec 2025) This was an action for copyright infringement brought by  Ardemis Boghossian ("Prof Boghossian")  against  IOP Publishing Limited ("IOP"), the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics  and publisher of the journal Nanotechnology .  Prof Boghossian claimed joint ownership of the copyright in a paper which IOP published in Nanotechnology in the names of Dejan M Djokic ("Dr Djokic") and  Aranya Goswami ("Mr Goswami") on 23 Oct 2017.  IOP brought Part 20 proceedings against Dr. Djokic seeking an indemnity or contribution in case Prof Boghossian's claim succeeded. The Parties Prof Boghossian was a chemical engineer and research scientist. In 2015, she was an Assistant Profe...

Representation of the Registered Design Crown Copyright  Open Government Licence   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Hacon) Barber v Wakefield and others [2024] EWHC 3058 (IPEC) (28  Nov 2024) This was a claim for the infringement of UK registered design number 4028780 for a locksmith's letterbox tool handle.  A representation of the design appears above,  His Honour Judge Hacon who tried the action said that it was the design of a tool to be manipulated through the letterbox of a front door to open the door without a key.  Typically the tool is used to assist individuals who are locked out of their homes though, as the judge remarked at para [21] of his judgment in Barber v Wakefield and others [2024] EWHC 3058 (IPEC) (28 Nov 2024), other uses could be imagined. Alleged Infringement The proprietor of the registered design alleged that Ultimate Tools Ltd and the individuals who ran that company had infringed his regis...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court  (Mr David Stone)  Rothy's Inc v Giesswein Walkwaren AG  [2020] EWHC 3391 (IPEC) (16 Dec 2020) This is a case about the design of shoes which is more interesting than many of the other designs that have come before the courts recently.  It is also possibly the last time an English court will have sat as a Community design court.  Mr David Stone, who tried the case as a deputy judge of the High Court, remarked at paragraph [9] of his judgment t hat   "As things currently stand, this Court will be unable to sit as a Community Design Court after 11pm UK time on 31 December 2020, given the current end date to the transition period following the UK's departure from the European Union." The Issues The claimant company,  Rothy's Inc. ("Rothy's"), is the registered proprietor of  registered Community design number 4500932-0002 for shoes  ("the RCD").  It also claimed to be entitled to an ...

Author: S Solberg J Licence Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Ever since the referendum and indeed before it I have tried to anticipate the legal protection for brands , designs , technology  and creativity  if and when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union (see Were we to go - what would Brexit mean for IP?   26 Feb 2016, What Sort of IP Framework do we need after Brexit and what are we likely to get?   3 July 2016  and IP Planning for Brexit 7 Dec 2018).  Much will depend on the terms upon which we leave the EU and our relationship after departure. Since the 23 Aug 2018 the government has published guidance on  How to prepare if the UK leaves the EU with no deal .  That guidance covers everything from Applying for EU Funded Programmes to Workplace Rights.  I commented about it in And if there is no deal ..................   24 Aug 2018 NIPC Brexit,  Topics in...

Mungo Jerry live at Zürisee-Festival in Switzerland 2013, Erlenbach Author Harald Bischoff Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence. Source: Wikipedia IPEC (His Honour Judge Hacon)  Editions Musicales Alpha S.A.R.L. v Universal Music Publishing Ltd and Others [2017] EWHC 1058 (IPEC) (10 May 2017) This case, which came before His Honour Judge Hacon on 23 Feb 2017, shows how copyright comes into being, how it is assigned and how much care should be taken when drawing up agreements for its assignment, particularly when settling disputes over ownership. The story began in 1966 when Jacques Dutronc  recorded a song entitled  Et moi, et moi, et moi   which reached number 2 in the French charts. Dutronc had composed the music while Jacques Lanzmann wrote the words. Because Britain and France were and remain parties to the Berne Convention , copyright subsisted automatically in those works in the Uni...

Houses of Parliament Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert The action arising from groundless threats has been one of the most perplexing features of our  intellectual property law  both for foreign owners of IPR in this country and their legal advisors (see Prince Plc v Prince Sports Group Inc [1998] FSR 21) and even non-specialist lawyers in the United Kingdom (see Brain v Ingeledew Brown Benson and Garrett and another  [1996] FSR 341). Under s.70 of the Patents Act 1977  and similar provisions in other IP legislation, a letter threatening proceedings that would be quite acceptable in most countries and even in the UK in respect of most other causes of action can land the lawyer or attorney who wrote it, and the client on whose behalf the letter was written, in a whole heap of trouble that sometimes results in an infringer getting away with his or her wrongdoing. S.70 (1) provides: "Where a person (whether or not the proprietor of, or entitled ...