Withers & Rogers former Chairman Karl Barnfather was delighted to moderate the opening panel session, on the Implications of Brexit and the UPC, to the MIP European Patent Reform Forum in Munich on Tuesday 6 September 2016. On the panel was Margot Fröhlinger of the European Patent Office and Professor Tilmann of the University of […]
T-518/13 Future Enterprises v EUIPO Can ownership of a family of trade marks help to prove infringement? According to the EU’s General Court, the answer is yes. In this case, McDonald’s were able to invalidate a third party’s registration for MACCOFFEE. The Court held that where a party owned a set of earlier registrations, all […]
The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Cartier International and Others vs BSkyB and Others [2016] EWCA Civ 658 and has upheld the High Court’s decision. Our earlier report of the High Court decision can be found here. High Court Summary The Claimants (Cartier, Mont Blanc and Richemont) own trade mark registrations for […]
The people of the UK have voted to leave the European Union (EU). The referendum of 23 June 2016 concerning the UK’s membership of the EU has resulted in 52% of voters opting for the UK to leave the economic and political union established under the EU. From an Intellectual Property user’s perspective nothing will […]
With the implementation of the Intellectual Property Act 2014, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) received increased powers with respect to its Opinion Service. Thirty months later, we have delved into the cases that have been heard to look at the effect the revamp has had. It serves as a timely reminder of a […]
Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) provide valuable patent term extensions that compensate both the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries for the delays suffered in bringing their products to market as a result of complex regulatory processes. Despite sometimes requiring similar levels of regulation to pharmaceutical products, medical devices are still not entitled to SPC protection. Whilst this […]