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IGET - A Dispute Resolution Service for Gaming and E-Sport Disputes

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By Kai Hendry from London, UK - Televised Star Craft, - Stork vs JJU 1, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2531978   Jane Lambert According to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the worldwide e-sports industry is worth over US$200 billion and has about 3 billion players (see James Nurton Game on: Navigating intellectual property in esports ,  10 June 2024 EU IPO website).  The appeal of e-sports is likely to increase with the establishment of the Olympic Esports Games .  A lot of money is invested in branding, technology and content creation, which will be protected by trade marks, patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. Infringement and licensing of those rights are likely to give rise to disputes between parties in different countries that cannot conveniently be resolved by litigation.  The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC ) and the World Intellectual Property Organization have recently launched...
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Latest Consultation on Standard Essential Patent Licensing

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Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Author bryan...   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert   In Patents: a New Resource Hub on Standard Essential Patents in May and HMG's other Proposals on FRAND Licensing ,  I wrote on 5 March 2025: "A standard essential patent ("SEP") is a patent that has to be worked in order to comply with a technical standard. Organizations that set such standards (known as standards-setting organizations or SSOs) require SEP proprietors to promise to license the use of their patents to businesses that want to make or distribute products that comply with those standards ("implementers") on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory ("FRAND") terms as a condition for including their patents within the standards." I added that in theory such a condition looks very fair and ought to work very well but in many cases it doesn't.  That is because implementers delay paying fees until a c...
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New Judicial Appointments

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Author Muhammad Karns Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Rolls Building, Business and Property Courts Jane Lambert There has been a recent flurry of judicial appointments that will affect intellectual property dispute resolution in both London and the North of England. On 26 June 2025, the Prime Minister announced the appointment of Lord Justice Birss as Chancellor of the High Court with effect from 1 Nov 2025 (see the press release  Appointment of the Chancellor of the High Court: June 2025 ,  25 Jun 2025).  As the press release states, the Chancellor of the High Court is one of the most senior judges in England and Wales.  The Chancellor presides over the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and sits as a judge of first instance in the Chancery Division.   He will have full responsibility for the Business and Property Courts in London and other centres, including the Patents Court , the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court  and t...
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St Andrews Innovation

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Eden Estuary and Former Paper Mill Author Jim Bain   Licence  CC BY-SA 2. 0  Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert It has been years since I graduated from St Andrews, but the University is still capable of teaching me something new and useful.  Yesterday, I learned a lot about enterprise, innovation and inclusion at a Connect-Ed Network Meet Up on Engaging and Supporting Female Founder s in the Cathedral Room at Walter Bower House on St Andrews's new Eden Campus . The meet-up began with a buffet lunch at 13:00.  I got to meet the Chair, Bonnie Hacking . Programme Manager, Entrepreneurship Centre, two of the speakers, Niki McKenzie , Joint Managing Director at Archangel Investors Limited , and product designer,  Kat Pohorecka , who is also an associate at Edinburgh Innovations , and many of the attendees, before the formal proceedings.  The third speaker was a remarkable recent graduate called  Simone Korsgaard Jensen ,...
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Clay in St Andrews

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Author Stephen Sweene y Licence CC NY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Yesterday I attended a talk by Andrew Cla y, a partner of Sonder & Clay and founder of TIPSY , entitled  ‘IP Rights – a good thing or a capitalist attack on the intellectual commons?’  in the new seminar room of the Department of Medieval History at St Andrews.  I was there for two reasons.  The first was to support Andrew (having badgered him for some time to give this talk) and the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research  and the University of St Andrews Law Society , which hosted it.  The second reason was that I could combine attendance at Andrew's talk with a visit to the U niversity of St Andrews's Eden Campus , which will host an Engaging and Supporting Female Founders: Connect-Ed Network Meet Up .  this afternoon. Andrew began his talk by explaining how and why he became a solicitor. He then projected a picture of Jam...
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AI - Threat or Opportunity for the Creative Industries

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Author US Government Licence Public domain Source     Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Since I discussed the Intellectual Property Office's consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence  in  UK Government Launches Consultation on AI and Copyright   on 16 Dec 2024, HM Government has published its  AI Opportunities Action Plan , the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change its Rebooting Copyright: How the UK Can Be a  Global Leader in the Arts and AI   white paper and the World Artificial Intelligence Film Festival  is about to open in Nice. Until recently, attention has focused on the negatives of AI.  The late Stephen Hawking warned that it could end human existence (see Rory Cellan-Jones, Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind   2 Dec 2014).  Others worried that it could reinforce inequalities between sections of society or bolster repression. In his foreword to the Tony Blair Institute white pape...
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Addressing the King's College London Bar and Mooting Society

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Dickson Poon School of Law Author Vladgrigore   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   S ource Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Last November the University of St Andrews Law Society  invited me to return to my alma mater to judge a mooting competition.   I wrote about it in Learning the Law in St Andrews - Mooting   on 6 Nov 2024. Yesterday I was asked by the King's College London Bar and Mooting Society  to join a panel discussion on intellectual property practice.  As I had previously worked with  Professor Frederick Mostert  on a project for the World Intellectual Property Organization which I mentioned in Another Side of the WIPO   on   5 Sept 2019, I was delighted to return to King's College . On arriving at the college's porters' lodge I met my colleague, Mark Engelman,   He old me that he had also been invited to sit on the panel.  Shortly afterwards we were joined by officers of the Society who led us through the securi...
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