News

The Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 came into force on 1 October 2017. The new law comes as the result of a consultation process triggered by the Law Commission in April 2013. UK law provides for protection against groundless threats of infringement proceedings by the holder of a patent, trade mark, unregistered design right […]

Under the UK Trade Marks Act 1994, a certification mark is defined in Section 50(1) as: “a mark indicating that the goods or services in connection with which it is used are certified by the proprietor of the mark in respect of origin, material, mode of manufacture of goods or performance of services, quality, accuracy […]

Webmarking Since 1 October 2014, patent holders have been able to better protect their patents through webmarks, a system whereby patent holders use a web address to mark their patented products instead of patent numbers. This system benefits patent holders as it removes the difficulties associated with having to include the patent number on every […]

On 7 September, the European Commission released their position paper on the treatment of all intellectual property (IP) rights post Brexit. IP rights include EU trade marks, registered and unregistered community designs, geographical indications and community plant variety rights. The Commission’s guiding principle is that the protection of unitary rights enjoyed in the United Kingdom […]

On Thursday 24 August, Lithuania ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), bringing the total number of ratifications to fourteen. As it stands, applicants will be able to protect their inventions in at least 16 countries (the existing 14 plus UK and Germany) with a single Unitary Patent (UP) when the system is […]

Inventors and applicants are often surprised to learn that the European Patent Convention (EPC) does not formally require a patent application to include experimental data. However, it has long been understood that any technical effect of an invention can only be relied upon to support an inventive step to the extent that the application as […]