Retail

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 »

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 »

Anti-counterfeiting: A Global Guide 2020 This article first appeared in Anti-counterfeiting: A Global Guide 2020, a supplement to World Trademark Review, published by Law Business Research – IP Division. To view the guide in full, please go to www.WorldTrademarkReview.com. For a further year, Senior Associates Louise Foster, Trade Mark Attorney and  Varuni Parantivatine, Solicitor, have… Read more »

Jet Suits – Making Your Commute A Breeze? The history of jet suits was discussed by AAT partner and patent attorney Alex Bone in his article last year. More recently, in August 2019, Frenchman Franky Zapata hit the headlines by becoming the first person to fly across the English Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard, the… Read more »

Legal update – UK IPO coronavirus response In recognition of the challenges individuals and businesses are facing amidst the coronavirus outbreak, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has made certain temporary adjustments to its practices, to ensure that parties are not adversely affected in their dealings with the Office. It has also had to… Read more »

Playing detective with patent databases It was recently reported in a wide number of news outlets that Apple might be extending its wearables range beyond smart watches, by developing a new product in the form of a smart ring. This is an expanding market which already has several major players including the Oura ring and… Read more »

Artificial Intelligence – Our March 2020 report According to the European Patent Office, for the first time in more than a decade, digital technologies have taken the lead in patent applications filed. Among the top technical fields digital communication (+19.6%) and computer technology (+10.2%) saw the steepest growth. The report, published on the 12th March… Read more »