NIPC News

Jane Lambert Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market is known as "the Portability Regulation." It a sensible piece of legislation that should enable subscribers to online services to continue to receive the content that they have paid for when visiting another member state.   The reason for the Regulation is that copyright is territorial. A subscriber in the UK is licensed to receive content under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 but not under the legislation of any other member state.  As it was made by the Council and European Parliament the Regulation will come into force automatically on 20 March 2018 pursuant to art 11 (2).  However, as it will affect existing legislation and it will need to be enforced.  To make provision for this Regulation the Intellectual Property Office has published a draft statutory instrument

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert Hardly a week goes by without a request for help from an inventor, entrepreneur or other innovator in Africa, Asia or Latin America as well as my own or some other advanced country. Obtaining legal protection for a brand, design, technology or work of art or literature is difficult enough even in the UK. In a less developed country it is so much harder.  Usually, all I can do when I get such a request is to direct the enquirer to his or her national intellectual property office, a local patent or trade mark attorney or lawyer or, occasionally, an inventor's club. The reason why those enquirers seek my help is that legal protection for a product or service is a prerequisite for market success.  Without it countless ideas that could improve the human condition lie unused.  That is obviously bad for the creator or innovator whose life could have been transformed  had he or she taken the product or service to market  but it is also bad for t

Jane Lambert I have been invited by the  Centre for Commercial Law Studies  of Queen Mary University of London to speak at its “Implications of Brexit on Intellectual Property Law” seminar at 67-69 Lincoln's Inn  Fields  between 18:00 and 20:00 on 12 Feb 2018. The email containing my invitation states: "The event provides a unique opportunity to address the important issues and implications in the area of Intellectual property in a post-Brexit era; and to provide a platform of controversy and conversation amongst top practitioners, academics and researchers. The speakers can choose a topic of their interest to be presented for approximately 15 minutes at the event." My topic will be the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court   and the fading prospects of our participating in the project.  Although many German lawyers tell me that there is nothing in the constitutional challenge to German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, the dis

Jane Lambert The State of Small Business: Putting UK entrepreneurs on the map   , which was compiled by Nesta (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts)  in collaboration with The Sage Group  Plc , is a data-led guide to the state of small and medium enterprises ("SME") in the UK.  It is accompanied by a website called "The State of Small Business"   which provides detailed information about how such businesses are performing and changing in each area. The authors hope that decision-makers will take advantage of the data to understand their local business environments and thereby assist them to drive growth and productivity locally and nationally. The authors' recommendations to central government and other national policy makers are to:- Know that the productivity puzzle must be solved at a local level, Devolve capacity, not just powers,  Hold local authorities and devolved areas to account, Simplify business taxes,