News

The UK is to leave the EU (“Brexit”) in March 2019, but a transitional (“implementation”) period is expected to apply until at least 31 December 2020, in which existing IP rights obtained under EU law and therefore affected by Brexit will continue to have effect in the UK. When Brexit becomes fully effective, EU unitary… Read more »

The UK government has announced it has joined the Hague Agreement for the international registration of industrial designs. The system will come into effect from 13 June 2018 and will give applicants the option of filing an international design which designates the UK individually (rather than coverage through designation of the EU). What are International… Read more »

From Corporate to Classroom  – the AAT outreach programme In 2015 Vince Bixby, Senior Business Systems Support at A.A. Thornton & Co, after striking up conversation with a friend who worked in the Art Department at Southend High School for Boys, realised that A.A. Thornton could give back to the community. The art department, which included digital… Read more »

On 08 February 2018, Her Majesty the Queen and her Privy Councillors signed off the Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order. This means that the UK is now in a position to ratify the Unitary Patent Court Agreement (UPCA. However, UK constitutional practice first requires the UK Intellectual Property Office to provide to the… Read more »

President of the European Patent Office, Benoît Battistelli, recently reiterated in a meeting with delegates from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) that “Brexit will have no impact on UK membership of the EPO” Battistelli went on to confirm that because the EPO is an independent international organisation (of which the UK is… Read more »

We are thrilled to announce that Partners and Chartered Trademark Attorneys Ian Gill and Vanessa Lawrence, have been, once again, recommended in the 2018 edition of the World Trademark Review (WTR) 1000: The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, in the “prosecution and strategy” category. They also received the following client comments: “Trademark and design pro Ian… Read more »

The EPO have recently extended their fast-track pilot programme agreement (the Patent Prosecution Highway, or PPH) with Canada, Israel, Mexico and Singapore. All four pilot programmes will now run until 5 January 2021. As with all pilot PPH programmes, the EPO reserve the right to end the programme early if, for example, participation levels “exceed… Read more »

Further to our announcement that the UKIPO were considering introducing some new fees and altering some existing fees, it has recently been confirmed that the proposed patent fee changes will go ahead on 6 April 2018. Pre-grant and Grant Fees   Fee   before 6 Apr 2018 (£) from 6 Apr 2018 (£) Application fee… Read more »

An exhibition by Bosch (in September 2017) demonstrated a variety of innovative solutions that use automated and connected technologies to address the issue of moving a rapidly increasing number of people around our cities safely and in a sustainable manner. Bosch Connected Car Taking centre stage in the event arena was the Bosch Connected Car… Read more »

The majority of commercial fuels are manufactured from oil and gas based petrochemical feedstocks. However, following the announcement that the UK intends to ban the sale of new cars powered solely by either petrol or diesel fuel by 2040 (and with similar bans announced, to date, by France and China), the race is on to… Read more »