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Rosie Burbidge
May 27, 20222 min read
Does scariness amount to detriment?
A fascinating recent judgment by Recorder Amanda Michaels concerned allegations that UK and EU trade marks for FUNTIME, FUN TIME and...


Rosie Burbidge
Apr 25, 20223 min read
What does Brexit mean for EUTMs?
Brexit may be “done” after the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, but its impact is continuing to be felt in a number of...


Rosie Burbidge
Apr 25, 20222 min read
What is the bar for summary judgment?
A recent application for summary judgment in a trade mark case in the IPEC was right on the cusp of being successful. The case was NAH...


Rosie Burbidge
Apr 25, 20222 min read
What are the consequences of falsifying evidence?
An recent case concerning the infringement of registered designs for furniture was notable for a finding of dishonesty on the part of the...


Rosie Burbidge
Apr 10, 20223 min read
How do you prove design infringement?
Boot designer Fairfax & Favor (F&F) has won a design infringement case against House of Bruar, a Scottish fashion retailer in the IPEC....


Rosie Burbidge
Mar 20, 20223 min read
Would you associate WONDER MUM with WONDER WOMAN?
A judge in the High Court has upheld a UK IPO opposition ruling regarding Unilever’s application to register the trade mark WONDER MUM...

Rosie Burbidge
Mar 20, 20223 min read
What do you need to do before picking a new brand name?
The risk of not doing any kind of trade mark search before launching a new business was clear in a recent IPEC case in which His Honour...


Rosie Burbidge
Mar 20, 20223 min read
When is confidential information misused?
Confidential information – which can include databases, sales figures, spreadsheets – is often an extremely valuable part of modern...


Rosie Burbidge
Mar 6, 20222 min read
Where is the line for prior art and registered designs?
The UK's IP Enterprise Court (IPEC) has recently been pondering existential questions relating to design rights. The case is Erol v Posh...


Rosie Burbidge
Mar 6, 20222 min read
When must a document be disclosed in copyright proceedings?
As part of the extensive copyright litigation over the popular song ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran, the defendants (Sami Chokri and others)...


Rosie Burbidge
Feb 27, 20222 min read
How should an IP licence agreement be interpreted?
What happens when two parties cannot agree about the interpretation of an IP licence agreement? This question was recently examined by...


Rosie Burbidge
Feb 17, 20222 min read
When does an arbitration clause apply to trade mark infringement proceedings?
The Court of Appeal recently found that a company which had acquired the BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB trade marks was bound by an arbitration...


Rosie Burbidge
Feb 14, 20222 min read
China joins the Hague System
China has been steadily overhauling its IP system for well over a decade. Last week, in the latest development, China joined WIPO’s Hague...


Rosie Burbidge
Feb 13, 20222 min read
What is the Unitary Patent and why does it matter to you?
The unitary patent represents the biggest change to the IP landscape in Europe since the Community Trade Mark (now EUTM). Even if you’re...


Rosie Burbidge
Feb 1, 20222 min read
What do you think of the UK designs system?
The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has launched a call for views on the designs system. It says this will “help us better...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 29, 20222 min read
Can UK courts grant pan-EU injunctions in proceedings began pre-Brexit ?
In short, yes: the UK courts can grant a pan-EU injunction in proceedings that were pending on 31 December 2020, the day the UK left the...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 29, 20222 min read
What's the risk of filing a takedown notice?
A legal action for unjustified threats is a serious risk that trade mark owners run when making allegations of infringement, including by...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 14, 20223 min read
How much will a court award in additional damages for flagrant IP infringement?
There was not a lot of excitement in 2021 but one IP highlight concerned the ongoing Original Beauty v G4K saga. We first wrote about...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 12, 20222 min read
When is purchasing an old trade mark a good idea?
Trade mark infringement, honest concurrent use and so-called “moribund marks” were the focus of an interim decision in a case concerning...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 4, 20223 min read
How do you interpret a copyright contract?
The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling by HHJ Hacon in the IPEC (first covered on the blog here) that copyright in a number of literary...


Rosie Burbidge
Jan 3, 20222 min read
What's a website blocking order and why is it useful?
Nintendo was granted an early Christmas present by the Honourable Mrs Justice Joanna Smith DBE - a website blocking order (Nintendo Co...


Rosie Burbidge
Dec 23, 20211 min read
What are the IP issues facing luxury businesses in the UK?
The latest Luxury Law Jurisdictional Comparison Guide has been released. The Guide provides jurisdictional-specific answers and insights...


Rosie Burbidge
Dec 8, 20214 min read
What do recent EU trade mark and design judgments mean for the UK?
Although EU law is no longer binding on the UK, in practice, the laws remain the same and what happens in the EU courts will continue to...


Rosie Burbidge
Nov 26, 20212 min read
How Tolkein's estate reclaimed a copycat crypto domain name
The estate of JRR Tolkien recovered the domain name jrrtoken.com, from the owner of a crytpo website
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