Design Rights

The EU Parliament has now approved reforms to EU design law, we set out below some of the key changes.   What’s happening? Proposals to amend the law were suggested in November 2022. In December 2023, the provisional law was published and it was adopted by the European Parliament in March 2024. The new Directive… Read more »

In the legal profession, cases act as landmarks that refine our grasp and enactment of law. Each verdict settles individual disputes and also enriches the tapestry of legal precedent. Among such key cases, the recent decision by the Court of Appeal in the clash between Industrial Cleaning Equipment (Southampton) Limited and Intelligent Cleaning Equipment Holdings… Read more »

The UK IPO has issued the first Tribunal Practice Notice (TPN) of 2023, which brings together previous guidance regarding costs in trade mark, patent and design tribunal proceedings and updates the scale of costs. Scale of costs The UK IPO Tribunal will continue to award costs in proceedings in line with the published scale. The… Read more »

In the recent case of Marks and Spencer PLC v Aldi Stores Limited [2023] EWHC 178 (IPEC) (the latest instalment of disputes between the two supermarkets), the IPEC ruled that Aldi had infringed M&S’ registered design rights in respect of the bottle used for their line of festive gin-liqueurs (pictured below). Background After this litigious… Read more »

PART 1 can be read here PART 2 can be read here   Part 3 – The Bike After looking at the technology behind the goggles and swimsuit of Matthews and Blummenfelt in our earlier articles (links above) we now take a brief look at arguably the most high-tech piece of kit – the bike…. Read more »

Patent Attorney and keen “endurance eventer” Stuart Greenwood continues his dive into the world of IRONMAN to report on the breaking of the latest seemingly unbreakable athletic barrier and the technology that helped make it possible.   PART 1 can be read here   Part 2 – The Swimsuit After looking at the technology behind… Read more »

I reported on the post-Brexit consultation launched by the UK government into the design system here, and the government’s response was recently published here. This article looks at the main conclusions offered in the government response.  If you were envisaging that the response would set out a clear plan for the reform of the system… Read more »

Making Walking Greener with Intellectual Property The recent pandemic has changed the daily commute for many from a time consuming journey to the office using a car, train and / or bike into a slipper-clad wander from kitchen to study (or makeshift bedroom office).  Hopefully those that can will continue to use their feet to… Read more »

A.A. Thornton & Co conversion to AA Thornton IP LLP We are delighted to share that, on 1 April 2022, A.A. Thornton & Co (“the Partnership”) converted from a partnership, under the Partnership Act 1890, to AA Thornton IP LLP (“the LLP”).   What this means for us Limited liability partnerships are a favoured structure amongst… Read more »

Re-design the system – the UK IPO consults on the future of UK design protection First a quick quiz to see whether you should read this article.   Question 1 Can you explain the differences between registered designs, UK unregistered design rights, Community unregistered design rights, supplementary unregistered design right and artistic copyright? A: Yes… Read more »