IP & Technology Blog

I recently attended the IP100 event held by Metis Partners in Glasgow at the beginning of October. This was a great opportunity to hear host Stephen Robertson (CEO of Metis Partners) and guest speakers Mike Hughes (CEO of Hiire) and Ashley Marron (CEO of MindGenius) discuss the importance of non-executive directors within IP-rich businesses.Metis Partners compile the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks IP100 – the UK’s first IP league table, which ranks companies based on a rating of the strength of their intellectual property (IP) assets (e.g. their brands, software, patents etc.) and the success they have had in exploiting such IP...

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has handed down its landmark ruling in the case of Mr McFadden v Sony Music. The case involved the operation by Mr McFadden of a free WIFI service. Mr McFadden runs a business selling and leasing lighting and sound systems, and he used the free WIFI service as a marketing tool to draw the attention of customers in nearby shops and cafes to his business. Unfortunately for Mr McFadden, a user of his service infringed the copyright in music owned by Sony, who issued a formal notice to Mr McFadden to respect...

Section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”) has been repealed. You could probably be forgiven if, during all the tumult and general clamour surrounding the triggering (or not triggering) of a certain Article 50, you missed this news. It’s slightly less gripping I grant you – but if you are involved in the industrial manufacture of goods, then it’s definitely something to be aware of. It could have a real impact on your business, and at the very least spark a review of some of your product lines.What is Section 52 and why has it been repealed?Section...

Last week I attended SynbioBeta 2016 at Imperial College London, the premiere synthetic biology conference for the industry. Attracting academics, industry and investors, the event was well attended with well known featured speakers in the synthetic biology fieldSynthetic Biology - a misnomer?Synthetic biology has been described as “an interdisciplinary branch of biology and engineering combining various disciplines from within these domains, such as biotechnology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, systems biology, biophysics, computer engineering, and genetic engineering”. Descriptions of synthetic biology depend on whether the discipline is approached as a biologist or as an engineer. Originally seen as a subset of biology,...

New proposals governing EU laws on trade marks have been approved by the European Parliament. They include changes to Community Trade Mark Regulation (CTMR) and the creation of a new Trade Mark Directive. The new Directive came into force mid-January and its transposition into national laws will be made within three years. The new Regulation will enter into force in March 2016. All references to “Community” shall be replaced with “European Union”, so the Community Trade Marks Regulation (CTMR), will become the European Union Trade Marks Regulation (EUTMR), and the Community Trade Mark the European Union Trade Mark. The European trade marks registry, OHIM, is re-named...