Trade Marks

3D marks – Shaping up for the New Year! The classic Volkswagen (VW) camper van is everywhere these days, its image adorning anything from clothing, tea towels and bedlinen to coffee mugs, fold out chairs and beach windbreaks.  Many a time the VW badge will be replaced with some other circular motif, often a peace… Read more »

Red letter day for Wordle – what next following its sale to The New York Times? News broke this week that viral online word game Wordle has been sold to The New York Times (NYT) for an undisclosed seven figure sum. The popularity of the free daily word puzzle has exploded in just a few… Read more »

Trademarking in the Metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens – virtually pointless? Should you be extending your trade mark protection to the Metaverse?  What role do Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) play within the Metaverse and your trade mark protection strategy?   What is the Metaverse? It is probably easiest to understand as a massively scaled up version of… Read more »

Pharmaceutical team member Suzanne Power provides a round-up of UK Trade Mark case law in pharma goods and medical devices This article was published in the December issue of PTMG’s Law, Lore & Practice With the UK IPO having seen record numbers of trade mark applications over the past year, a steady stream of objections,… Read more »

Exhausted? You’re not alone…! What next for parallel imports after Brexit? This article was first written by our experts Ian Gill and Suzanne Power for PTMG’s Law Lore & Practice Newsletter   Background 1 January 2021 marked the start of a new era for the United Kingdom and European Union. On that date, some four… Read more »

Post Brexit – the final countdown … Don’t forget the 30 September 2021 deadline for filing comparable UK trade mark or design applications based on any EU trade marks or designs that were pending at the end of the Brexit transition period.  Since Brexit took effect this year, those rights will no longer cover the… Read more »

UK government faces challenges over future exhaustion of IP rights regime Brexit created ‘one way door’ policy for parallel imports, say AA Thornton partners Ian Gill and Dan Byrne This article was first posted by The Global Legal Post  as event coverage for Ian and Dan’s presentation ‘Exhaustion of rights’ for the Anti-counterfeiting World Summit…. Read more »

Ian Gill reports on how miniscule trademark use may be enough to support a passing off claim and maintain a EU trademark registration. This article was written by Ian for the IPKat legal blog Don’t be fooled: decision O/050/21 is not just another unsuccessful appeal to the UK Appointed Person (approximately 85% of such appeals are unsuccessful). Underlying… Read more »

AA Thornton welcomes five candidates for Virtual work insight days 2021 Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome five engaging candidates to our first virtual work insight days, including the great-granddaughter of our founding partner Alfred Augustus Thornton.  The two day event was an opportunity for the students to have a practical insight into… Read more »

Copyright in AI 2021 – Sarah Neil shares an update on the progress in the UK’s review of artificial intelligence and intellectual property   As we have mentioned in previous articles how having a range of IP is an important part of a strong portfolio in the protection of your AI business. The ever accelerating… Read more »