From 23.00 on 31 January 2020, the UK will no longer a member state of the EU, although it will be treated as such for the duration of the transition period. From an IP point of view, the status quo will be maintained during the transition period (currently until the end of December 2020). Here we look at how the Withdrawal Agreement acts to preserve IP rights in the UK which were previously based on EU rights, and what changes are anticipated post-transition, as well as the aspirations of the Political Declaration. Read more

The CJEU has today handed down a crucial decision as it seeks to provide clarification on important questions about the extent of the monopoly businesses can obtain legitimately through the registration of a trade mark. The CJEU held that a registered trade mark cannot be declared wholly or partly invalid as a result of a lack of clarity and precision of the terms used to designate the goods and services covered by that registration. Further, whilst invalidity on the ground of bad faith may be triggered where an applicant registers a mark without any intention to use it in relation to specified goods and services, bad faith will only be established in exceptional circumstances. This outcome is very helpful to existing trade mark proprietors and favours the existing status quo of the trade mark system. Read more

On 23 January 2020, AG Giovanni Pitruzzella provided his Opinion on the interpretation of Article 3(d) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products ("SPC Regulation"). In doing so, AG Pitruzzella makes two proposals to the CJEU. His favoured proposal would significantly curtail the availability of SPCs for second medical uses of known and previously authorised compounds, as it strictly interprets the meaning of "product" under Article 1(b) and precludes an interpretation of Neurim according to which a marketing authorisation (“MA”) for a “different and new application of an old active ingredient” could be considered as the first MA of a previously authorised active ingredient. His alternative proposal permit SPCs in a wider set of circumstances by interpreting Neurim as allowing an SPC to be granted if the new MA “covers a new therapeutic indication of said active ingredient or relates to a use of it in which this active ingredient exerts a new pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action of its own”. Read more

Businesses in every sector are under pressure to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. ‘’Open innovation’’ is a term that has come to describe innovation which extends beyond the traditional R&D department of a business and embraces a broader pool of talent and ideas within the whole business and frequently also extends to an external partnership with a third party collaborator to assist with and accelerate the process. In our second publication Data issues in innovation and collaborations, following on from our Open Innovation: Collaborate To Innovate report, we take a more detailed look at how data frequently plays a central role in the drive towards ‘’open’’ innovation and the significant value attached to it. Data can be used to generate new products or services and revenue streams, to identify efficiencies within an organisation and reduce costs, and to inform strategic decision-making. Read more

On Thursday 7 November, our London IP team hosted a panel discussion and roundtable session on 'Harnessing the power of diversity in IP'. This was part of an ongoing campaign with World IP Review (WIPR), to celebrate the achievements of influential women in IP and to improve gender diversity in the profession. Read more

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