In the United Kingdom it is not a requirement for a trade mark or design licence to be registered at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), so why bother? If a licence is not registered, any rights held by a licensee are ineffective against any third party to whom the licensor’s rights are later assigned to provided that the third party is ignorant or unaware of the licence. This means the third party takes free from the licence and can ultimately prevent the licensee f

What connects Leonardo Da Vinci, a Christmas miracle and the possible award of exemplary damages? The answer lies in a recent High Court judgment by Mr Justice Jacobs (Salt Ship Design AS v Prysmian Powerlink SRL). The case concerned designs for a cable lay vessel produced by Salt Ship Design for Prysmian. The judge found that Prysmian (a company with annual revenue of €10 billion) had made the designs available to another designer, Vard Design AS, which was associated with t

When can component parts of a product be protected as unregistered Community designs (UCDs)? The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) recently answered that question in a case concerning design rights in a Ferrari car (Case C-123/20). The case, which was before the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) related to the Ferrari FXX K model, presented to the public in December 2014 (pictured). Ferrari alleged that Mansory Design (and Mansory’s CEO) infringed its UCDs by marketing ki

We recently reported on the Litecoin case where an application to register a trade mark was found to constitute passing off (see blog post here). Whilst cryptocurrency and celestial beings may not, at first glance, have a lot in common, a recent IPEC decision over the mark ARCHANGEL ALCHEMY raised some similar issues. Both cases highlight the importance of clearing a new trade mark application before filing or using the trade mark. This was a dispute between two spiritual and

Good news for anyone with international trade mark plans On 28 September, 2021, the United Arab Emirates Government and WIPO announced that the UAE will be joining the Madrid System. The UAE will be the 109th country to join the Madrid System (which now covers 125 countries). The Madrid Protocol will enter into force for UAE on 28 December, 2021. This is a big deal for brand owners looking for trade mark protection in the UAE, as filing costs have historically been particular