Knowledge Hub

UK Intellectual Property Office – new rules soon on address for service Following a consultation in the UK with intellectual property professionals, the UK Government has announced that the existing reference to the European Economic Area (EEA) will be removed from the current address for service rules for UK trade marks, designs and patents: Government’s… Read more »

AA Thornton joins Senior leaders’ diversity think tank This public statement was first published on IP Inclusive. We are proud to share the below statement from IP inclusive on the ‘diversity and inclusion think tank’ initiative. We support this initiative as part of our ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion at AA Thornton, and strive… Read more »

It’s the Most Wonderful Mark of the Year: legal protection and use of seasonal slogan marks  Every year we wait with anticipation for the new John Lewis advert and the famous Coca Cola trucks to finally deliver the message that the holidays are coming! To the consumer seasonal adverts mean that businesses will be soon… Read more »

AA Thornton is ranked again as a Tier 1 firm in The Legal 500 The Legal 500 2021 edition has now been published and we are absolutely delighted to be recommended as a top-tier firm for our trade marks team, who have not only been described as “extremely talented“, ” excellent” and “dependable” but that their work for clients… Read more »

Appeals to the Appointed Person in the UK – the unappealing truth (part 2) This article was first published in The IPKat, and is a follow-up post from Ian Gill, who once again has been scouring decisions from the Appointed Person on trade mark appeals in the UK Intellectual Property Office.   Nearly five months… Read more »

Automotive team member, Rachel Havard considers the rise of the Ineos Grenadier and Jaguar Land Rover’s attempt to register their Defender shape as a UK trade mark   Ben Fogle in The Telegraph – “It is said that for more than half the world’s population, the first car they remember having seen is a Land… Read more »

Is your IP Strategy fit for purpose? – Five Questions to Ask Yourself The following article was first published in issue 21 of BioScience Today.   As a result of the lockdown due to the global pandemic there is a greater need and renewed focus on using innovation to kick-start the economic recovery.  The result… Read more »

Retail team member Sarah Neil reviews the problem of online trade mark infringement and the options for combating third party copycats online You may have seen the recent story of Little Soap Co and its battle against a scammer who set up an Instagram account cloning the company’s genuine Instagram account in an effort to… Read more »

IP&ME event, BAME representation in IP Round Table IP & ME, IP Inclusive’s community for BAME professionals and their allies, held a virtual round table to discuss BAME representation levels in the UK’s IP sector on 29 July 2020. As co-lead of the IP Ability initiative (and AA Thornton’s Diversity and Inclusion Partner) Marianne Privett… Read more »

Access to Intellectual Property (IP) Rights in a Time of Emergency – Patent Pools and Beyond This article was first published in BioScience Today The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is often accused of misusing IP to extend exclusivity and delay reasonably priced access to life saving technologies. The recent pandemic has focussed attention on the… Read more »