The BBC thriller The Capture has captured the public’s imagination with its portrayal of the relationship between deepfakes and CCTV evidence, and the serious legal risks associated with this technology. In a recent report published by non-profit research institute Data & Society, deepfakes were found to be “no new threat to democracy”, in that audiovisual … Read more

The CJEU’s Advocate-General (‘AG’) has delivered his Opinion that a registered trade mark cannot be declared invalid solely due to the terms used in the mark’s specification lacking ‘sufficient’ clarity and precision. However, this statement came with the substantial caveat that a lack of clarity and precision in the specification could cause the application/registration to … Read more

“Contextual commerce”, the next retail frontier? One-click purchasing platforms that link the immediate “want” with the immediate “sell”. Read all about it in the latest edition in our Future of Consumer series on challenges facing the consumer and retail sector: Do you want it right now? The exciting future of contextual commerce. E-commerce has revolutionised … Read more

In our recent report on our clients’ perspectives on managing innovation in their organisations “Open Innovation: Collaborate To Innovate” we shared our insights into the world of open collaboration assisted by contributions from a wide range of our clients. As part of our analysis we highlighted the main legal considerations that arise in restructuring a collaboration arrangement. In our first publication following on from the report – Getting the IP right in collaborations – we take a more detailed look at some of the principal intellectual property issues and set out practical steps to consider when embarking on collaboration projects. Read more

Today our updated Brexit Legal Guide was released which contains a section on intellectual property and pharmaceutical regulation. Below is a message from our Chair and Senior Partner James Palmer which accompanied the updated guide. Dear clients and professional colleagues, The outcome of the June 2016 UK referendum on EU membership ushered in a period of increasing … Read more

Innovation that happens in an "open" collaborative context – either internally or with external partners - can provide faster, better, more holistic results to accelerate innovation and improve competitive advantage, concludes our new report: Open Innovation: Collaborate to Innovate based on "innovation" interviews with our clients.   Read more

HSF's Consumer sector team (including Joel Smith, Victoria Horsey, Sarah Burke and Rachel Montagnon, from our IP group) have just a feature article published in June's PLC Magazine on Challenges in the Consumer Sector.This is the first in a series of three articles examining the current issues facing the sector. The article examines the impact of transformative technology and looks in particular at AI, AR & VR (including IP aspects), data commercialisation, Internet of Things, contextual commerce, data privacy, cyber security, targeted advertising, and on-line infringement of IP rights. For more on these and other issues affecting the Consumer sector see our Future of Consumer hub. Read more

Faced with the exponential rise of data as an asset class in its own right, organisations are now taking a fresh look at the data that are available or accessible to them and the ways in which the value of those data can be safeguarded, unlocked and maximised. Data have become a strategic and valuable asset for many organisations but protecting and exploiting that asset is not always simple. Our feature article, published in May's edition of PLC Magazine and linked in this post, considers data as an asset, how intellectual property rights can be employed to protect data, how data can be used effectively and how to minimise associated legal risks. Read more