Blog archive

A patent can fail for a number of reasons. Obviousness is one of the more difficult ones to call...

You buy a CD and makes a copy for use on a portable device, or for storage in a cloud service. That's allowed isn't it?...

A dispute over a parking fine has received a lot of press attention from the angle of the aggrieved motorist standing up to big business. But there are wider implications...

In the last few days before campaigning for May's election started, the UK Consumer Rights Act finally made it through the parliamentary process and became law. Most of the CRA will take effect in October 2015, although this date needs rubber-stamping by parliament...

A product-placement dispute over the popular TV show MasterChef sheds some light on how not to complete your negotiations...

Contracts often include terms that give discretion to one of the parties to make a decision affecting the other party. Does that mean that the party with the discretion can use it freely? Apparently not, according to a recent Supreme Court case...

A brand-owner generally wants to use the same brand across several countries, but there are industries where national branding is common. Pharmaceuticals is one...

The UK government has reported on its major review of the legal framework for the next stage for driverless cars...

An audit clause is often found in an intellectual property licensing agreement to provide a licensor with protection...

The UK government's announcement last week of the results of its competition for driverless car testing is an exciting development. We expect an announcement of the results of a review of the regulatory regime to follow shortly...

We commented last year on the re-launch of the Patents County Court as the the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, or IPEC. The restyled court for dealing with lower value IP disputes efficiently and cheaply has proved popular...

It is unusual for a patent infringement case to be decided without a full trial. A judge will normally want to hear evidence from experts to understand what people working in the relevant field would have known at the time when the patent was first filed...