The IP (Unjustified Threats) Bill
Minister for Intellectual Property Crown Copyright Open Government Licence On 19 May 2016 Lady Neville-Rolfe, the Minister for Intellectual Property, introduced the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill into the House of Lords. The purpose of the Bill is to reform the law relating to unjustified threats of IP infringement. The need for reform is illustrated by two comparatively recent cases: Prince Plc v Prince Sports Group Inc. [1998] FSR 21 where the American lawyers of a well-known multinational sports goods supplier landed their client in High Court proceedings by demanding the transfer of a domain name by reference to their client's worldwide trade mark registrations in a letter before action that would have been quite unobjectionable in the United States; and Brain v Ingledew Brown Bennison and Garrett (No. 3) [1997] FSR 51 where a firm of solicitors was sued for pre-action correspondence that would have been quite...