It has been reported in the Belfast Telegraph (link below): http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/global-drinks-giant-ab-inbev-forces-oneman-belfast-business-john-appleseed-to-change-name-claiming-trademark-infringement-31034753.html that Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A., the owners of the Trade Mark JOHNNY APPLESEED,  has objected to local man's, Colin Mackey, trade mark application to register JOHN APPLESEED (below) and as a consequence Mr.  Mackey has withdrawn the application and also changed the name of his [...]

We are delighted to announce the appointment of two new directors to MacLachlan & Donaldson. Carla MacLachlan has been with the firm since 1991 and works as a Trade Mark Attorney, specialising particularly in assisting local start-up businesses protecting their intellectual property. Carla has a background in marketing which makes her particularly suited to this role. [...]

It was announced on 13th November 2014 that a local division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be established in Ireland when the State, as is hoped, ratifies the agreement for the establishment of the UPC.  The new Court will have exclusive competence in respect of European patents and European patents with unitary effect, and it [...]

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has settled an action for passing off against two companies alleged to have issued official looking letters offering to renew patent and trade mark registrations for a fee significantly higher than the fee charged by the IPO. The two companies, Patent and Trade Mark Office and Patent and Trade [...]

Following up on our post in June this year on the CJEU decision (Karen Millen Fashions Ltd v Dunnes Stores, Dunnes Stores (Limerick) Ltd) in relation to how the so-called “individual character” of a design is to be assessed, the legal skirmish between the parties is now over after almost six years. The Supreme Court of Ireland [...]

The Intellectual Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 and the Legislative Reform (Patents) Order 2014 have each now been published and will affect the scope of patent infringement in Ireland and the United Kingdom, respectively.  The research exemption in the legislation is to be enhanced, benefitting companies engaged in the pharmaceutical sector.  The Irish Association of [...]

In our news post around this time last year here we reported that the Irish Government was to hold a Constitutional Referendum with the goal of amending the Constitution to enable a new Court of Appeal interposed between the High Court and the Supreme Court to be established. The referendum succeeded in October 2013 with [...]

Flexibility in prosecuting certain European patent applications is currently restricted by the inability to obtain a search report for claims which the EPO considers to relate to more than one invention.  In such cases, the EPO searches the invention first presented in the claims and raises a lack of unity objection for all other claims. [...]

We mark the recent passing of an outstanding scientist and inventor Stephanie Kwolek on June 18th 2014 in her 91st year. Ms. Kwolek was a researcher for several decades at DuPont, where she was engaged in the development of new fibres. Most famously, in 1965 she and her team developed the polymer commonly known as [...]

Abstract ideas and pure methods of doing business have for some time been excluded from patentability in the United States. On 19th June 2014 the United States Supreme Court handed down its Decision in Alice Corp. v CLS Bank International, which involved a method for performing a financial transaction, and has unanimously ruled that abstract ideas and business methods, even [...]