NIPC Law

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert March's Brexit Briefing  which I published today in NIPC Brexit discussed the draft withdrawal agreement  contemplated by art 50 (2) and the guidelines for negptiations on the future relationship between the UK and EU provided by the European Council  and the European Parliament . While welcoming the progress that has been made to date I warn that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and that there are plenty of things that can go wrong between now and Brexit day/  It is quite possible that the EU treaties will fall away on 29 March 2019 without anything taking their place.  Even though the government has assured them of a period of stability between that day and 31 Dec 2020, my advice to businesses on both sides of the English Channel and Irish border is to continue to plan for the worst (that is to say, no agreement at all) as well as hoping for the best. Anyone wishing to discuss this article or Brexit ge...

Mark Twain 1835-1910 Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert "James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration." (Mark Twain) The last time I wrote about the Unified Patent Court and unitary patent  I was pessimistic on whether the United Kingdom could remain a party to the Unified Patent Court Agreement  after 29 May 2019 and also  on whether that agreement could survive the UK's departure (see What, if anything, can be salvaged from the UPC Agreement?   26 Jan 2018). On balance I am still pessimistic but I have not yet given up hope on either score. There are four reasons for not giving up hope completely all of which have arisen since my last article:- The Privy Council made  The Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2018  SI 1988 No 184 on 8 Feb 2018 which clears t...

Jane Lambert On 12 Feb 2018 I shall address a seminar entitled the  Implications of Brexit on Intellectual Property Law which will be hosted by Queen Mary University of London Centre for Commercial Law Studies at 67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields (see Jane Lambert  I mplications of Brexit on Intellectual Property Law   19 Jan 2018 NIPC News). The topic that I have chosen is "What if anything can be salvaged from the Unified Patent Court Agreement?" The reason I have chosen that topic is that it seems increasingly unlikely that the Unified Patent Court ( "UPC" ) will open its doors before 23:00 on 29 March 2019 which is "exit day" within the meaning of clause 14 (1) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill (HL Bill 79). I say that for two reasons. The first is that art 89 (1) of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court provides that that agreement will come into force "the first day of the fourth month after the deposit of the thirteenth instr...

Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP Author: Home office Source: Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Jane Lambert In her Lancaster House speech of the 17 Jan 2017 (the transcript of which can be found on The Independent's website ) the Prime Minister acknowledged that "Britain might at times have been seen as an awkward member state" However, there is one policy upon which we have always been impeccably  communautaire   That   has been the scheme to establish a single European patent for the territories of all the EU member states with a single European patent court. We were one of the few parties to ratify the Community Patent Convention  in 1975 shortly after we joined the EEC. Ever since then our government has participated constructively in deliberations and negotiations both for a Community patent within the framework of the EU (see Community Patent  on the Eur-Lex website) and a European patent litigation agreement ("EPLA") as an optional...

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...

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...

Jane Lambert In  Implementing the Unitary Patent in the UK   22 Feb 2016 I discussed the consultation on the implementation of the Unified Patent Court Agreement  in the legal systems of the United Kingdom. The consultation document, which was entitled  Technical Review and Call for Evidence on Secondary Legislation Implementing the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and EU Regulations Establishing the Unitary Patent , contained a draft statutory instrument upon which the public's views were canvassed. I discussed the responses to that consultation and the government's reply. The government has now published a draft statutory instrument known as  The Patents (European Patent with Unitary Effect and Unified Patent Court) Order 2016  which will come into effect on the date of entry into force of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. The Draft Order The draft order consists of three articles: Art 1  concerns citation, the ent...

Just before the Scottish referendum I wrote a couple of articles on the SNP's proposals for intellectual property in a separate Scotland ( What would an independent Scottish government do about Intellectual Property?   10 Sept 2014 and  More on Scotland and Intellectual Property   13 Sept 2014). Today I shall attempt a similar exercise in respect of Brexit. What would not change Were we to withdraw from the European Union we would probably remain a member of the World Trade Organization  and bound by TRIPS ( Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) . Art 2 (1) of TRIPS requires WTO members to comply with Articles 1 through 12, and Article 19, of the Paris Convention . There is no reason why we should not remain party to the Berne , Rome  and other multilateral agreements to which we are party including the European Patent Convention . But what would However, we would miss out on the unitary patent and the Unifie...