Have you made your business New Year resolutions? Have you finalised your business goals for this year and have you included an IP Strategy as part of these goals? Intellectual Property is an integral component of any successful business and includes a company’s patents, trade marks, designs, copyrights and trade secrets. An Intellectual Property Strategy [...]
Listening to thought for the day on BBC Radio 2, the speaker spoke about the ban on the celebration of Christmas in 17th century England and how mince pies, which were apparently once shaped like, and the size of, cribs were transformed into the small versions we know and love today, making them easier to [...]
Due to the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland is in the unique position of having access to both the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) markets, but is our access to the EU market as “unfettered“ as some may suggest? Current goods placed on the market anywhere in the United Kingdom [...]
Our competition for Entrepreneurs and Start-ups is open for Global Entreprenuership Week!
Brexit is looming and will impact many aspects of business including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Join our webinar on 11th November at 12pm as we explain the effects of Brexit on the different types of IPR, and find practical answers to questions like: Will my existing IP rights be sufficient after Brexit? What changes might I need [...]
Following on from Part I of of Brexit and IP, we will look now at a further range of topics including international trade marks, the ramifications of use, exhaustion of rights, infringements and domains. Additionally we will touch on other types of intellectual property which, other than designs, are largely not affected by Brexit. We [...]
As we are all aware the BREXIT transitional period or ‘implementation period’ ends on the 31st December 2020. There are a number of areas to cover in this topic, and today we will cover why this date is important for the owners of EU trade marks and what the implications are. Part II next week [...]
It is interesting to note that although the EPO has been providing applicants and their representatives with the opportunity to be heard via video conferencing since 1998, it is the Covid-19 pandemic that has necessitated the provision to be availed by default. A decision to this effect has been implemented from 2 April 2020, thereby [...]
Having covered in some detail the history of patents in Ireland in early September, we now turn our attention to the history of trade marks, with some further insight into the history of MacLachlan & Donaldson as well. The history of trade marks The history of trade marks is far less documented than that of [...]
On 11th June 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) handed its key decision Brompton Bicycle Ltd. v. Chedech / Get2Get (Case C‑833/18). In this judgment several points are discussed, including the overlap between copyright and design law and whether a mass-produced product such as the Brompton bicycle, with a design which [...]
