NIPC News

Jane Lambert I have just launched a new blog called NIPC Branding  which covers trade marks and branding for startups and other small businesses. This blog has grown out of my public access practice. On the About page I explain that "difficulties have arisen that could have been avoided, or opportunities missed that could have been exploited, had the persons involved been made aware of the issue in advance." The purpose of this blog is discuss those issues and the countermeasures that can be taken to avoid the difficulties and steps that can be taken to exploit the opportunities. I also set out the services that I offer and how I can be instructed if anyone wants further advice or assistance. The very first post addresses the question of whether an entrepreneur can apply for a trade mark by him or herself or whether he or she should instruct a trade mark attorney (see  Can I apply for a Trade Mark by myself or must I instruct an Attorney?   31 Ma...

WIPO Head Office in Geneva Photo Jane Lambert © 2006 Jane Elizabeth Lambert: all rights reserved Jane Lambert Since 2005 the European Union has had its own top level domain space for businesses, institutions and individuals domiciled in any of the EU or EFTA mmber states.  The best known users of that domain space are the EU institutions such as the European Union itself (http://europa.eu/), the Court of Justice of the European Union (https://curia.europa.eu) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (https://euipo.europa.eu) but there are others who have registered ".eu" domain names. The agreement to register an ".eu" domain name requires complaints by trade mark owners over the registration of the domain name to be referred to a panel appointed by a dispute resolution service provider chosen by the complainant. Up to now, the Czech Arbitration Court  has been the only dispute resolution service provider but from tomorrow it wi...

Jane Lambert In November 2010, a few months after it had assumed office, the Coalition Government commissioned Prof. Ian Hargreaves  to review how the intellectual property framework supports growth and innovation. His terms of reference  expressly included "the cost and complexity to SMEs of accessing IP services to help them to protect and exploit IP". At para 9.2 of his report,  Digital Opportunity A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth , which   Hargreaves presented in May 2011, he identified "gaps in IP knowledge among SMEs and gaps in IP services available to them" which impaired the "ability of young and innovative UK firms to realise the potential value of IP".  That mattered, according to Hargreaves "because of the growing importance of smaller IP intensive firms to future growth."  Hargreaves found that the reason for those gaps was that current service provision was not configured as well as it could have been to ...