News

Further to our earlier comment on Cadbury’s failed attempt to register as a trade mark its well-known colour purple, the UK Supreme Court has refused its request to appeal the decision. Unfortunately for Cadbury, the Court of Appeal found favour with Nestlé’s contention that its application was incapable of registration. To recap, Cadbury filed a […]

Lush is a well-known manufacturer and supplier of cosmetic products, primarily under the LUSH brand. Amazon, the world’s largest online shopping retailer, used Lush’s trade mark, LUSH, as a Google Adword and as a part of the search function on its UK website. Due to Amazon’s use of LUSH in keyword searches, customers were directed […]

In the latest judgment in the ongoing dispute between Virgin Atlantic Airways (Virgin) and Zodiac Seats UK Ltd (Zodiac), ([2013] EWCA Civ 1713) the Court of Appeal has ruled that the validity (or otherwise) of patents based on the process of examination and grant in the EPO is not open to challenge in the English […]

Following a long standing legal challenge, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has today sided with Karen Millen in a ruling which should offer greater protection for designers in future. The dispute between the high-end, high street retailer and the Irish department store, Dunnes, centres on the design of a black jumper […]

A recent decision of the UKIPO Hearing Office (see here) has added to the growing body of case law concerning which products are, and which are not, entitled to a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC). Those familiar with the pharmaceutical sector will be aware that SPCs provide an extension to the lifetime of patent monopolies for […]

The Intellectual Property Bill received royal assent on 15 May 2014, and will come into force as the Intellectual Property Act 2014. Many of the new measures are expected to take effect in October 2014, with the remainder entering into force by the end of 2015. Designs are a key focus for the new legislation. […]