News

The planned start date for the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) has been pushed back by two months to the new date of 1 June 2023. The delay, announced today (5 December 2022), has been given after some users requested more time to get the authentication requirements in place for the new Case Management System (CMS).  The […]

Bad faith in filing applications (ECJ 07.09.2022 – T-627/21 – Segimerus/EUIPO [Monsoon]) It is to be considered abusive if an EU trade mark is filed claiming priority according to Art 34 (1) EUTMR and, before the expiry of this six-month period, national trade mark applications were filed in succession every six months, alternately in Germany […]

Risk of confusion between “NORTH FACE” and “THE DOG FACE” due to the highly distinctive character of the earlier mark (OLG Frankfurt am Main, Beschl. v. 28.06.2022 – 6 W 32/22 – “THE NORTH FACE”/“THE DOG FACE”) In principle, there is no high degree of similarity between the mark “THE NORTH FACE” and the contested sign […]

It has recently been reported by CIPA that the “ten-day rule” will come to an end following a decision from the Administrative Council of the EPO. Under the existing “ten-day rule” (provided by Rule 126(2) EPC), postal notifications from the European Patent Office are deemed to have been received ten days after their date of […]

In 2021, a referral was made to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) in case T116/18 concerning whether post-published evidence (i.e., information not available until after the filing date of a patent application) can be used to demonstrate a technical effect in the assessment of inventive step.  The EBA has now issued its non-binding preliminary […]

We are delighted to see that Gemma McGeough, Helen Henderson and Laurie Bray have all been recognised as Rising Stars in Managing IP’s 2022 rankings. Managing IP’s Rising Stars publication recognises some of the best up-and-coming IP practitioners who have contributed to the success of their firms and clients. We would like to extend our […]