NIPC News

Copyright 2023 WIPO  Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert The WIPO's World Intellectual Property Indicators 2023   and the statistic that caught my eye is that India filed 31.6% more patent applications in 2022 than in the previous year. According to the accompanying press release, it extended an 11-year run of growth unmatched by any other country among the top 10 filers. India overtook the UK in the list of countries that filed the most patent applications in 2022.   There was a 1.7% growth in the worldwide number of patent applications in 2022 (3,457,400 in 2022 compared to 3,400,500 in 2021.  Some 1.58 million (or nearly half) of those patent applications came from China.  The USA came second with 505,539 applications, Japan third with 405,361, South Korea fourth with 272,315 and Germany fifth with 155,896.  The UK lay eighth with 53,536 between India with 55,718 and Switzerland with 49,077.   There was, however, a sharp...

Gray's Inn Square Author Chensiyuan   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert On 18 Sept 2023, I shall be one of the speakers at IP Update, a seminar on some of the latest developments in intellectual property law which will take place between 14:00 and 17:00 in my chambers at 4-5 Gray's Inn  Square . The other speakers will be James Bridgeman SC , who will also chair the seminar, Mark Engelman , Christian Panayi  and Elizabeth Nicholls .  For intellectual property specialists in the Midlands, we shall repeat the seminar on 25 Sept between 14:00 and 17:00 in our Birmingham premises at 2 Snow Hill.   Should those talks go well, we shall repeat them in Manchester and the other cities with  Business and Property Courts . Attendees will be invited to arrive between 13:30 and 14:00 for registration and networking over tea or coffee.  They can reserve their places by calling our senior clerk, Emily Martin, on 020 7404 525...

European Patent Office Author  Kārlis Dambrāns Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert In IPO Consultation on SEPs and Innovation , I mentioned the Intellectual Property Office's open consultation on SEPs and innovation and issued a call for views  on 19 Dec 2021. The responses to that consultation appear in  Standard Essential Patents and Innovation: Summary of Responses to the Call for Views  which was updated on 5# July 2023.   On 21 March 2023, the IPO published a  questionnaire on standard essential patents ("SEPs") for SME small-cap and mid-cap businesses.  which I discussed in IPO Consults on SEP Licensing   on 24 March 2023.  The IPO received 47 responses to that questionnaire including one from me.  It published the outcome of the consultation on 5 July 2023 (see  SEPs questionnaire for SME, small-cap and mid-cap businesses: Summary of Response ).  It intends to consider the r...

Howard Building Author TheWub   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Except for 2020 when the Informa IP Law Simmer Schoo l took place online and 2021 when it was held in December,  I have chaired the session on patent law and delivered a talk on FRAND  at the Howard Building in Downing College Cambridge for the last 5 years.  I shall do so again this year between the 7 and 11 Aug 2023.  There is an excellent programme  of talks from distinguished speakers .  Attendees are housed in college and fun s ocial events are arranged every night .  Anyone wishing to attend the course can book here . A lot has happened in my topic since last year.   There has been Mr Justice Mellor's judgment in  I Interdigital Technology Corp and others v Lenovo Group Ltd and others [2023] EWHC 539 (Pat) on 16 March 2023.  That was the second time that an English court had been called upon to determine what ...

  Jane Lambert The robes to be worn by the judges of the Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court are quite fetching.  Photos of those robes are to be found in the Annexes to the Presidium Decision of the Dress Code of the Unified Patent Court  of 4 April 2023 which came into force yesterday, Art 1 of the Decision requires judges of the Court of First Instance to wear a gown as shown and described in Annex I,  It is a black and blue garment that extends halfway to the lower leg. The outer fabric of the gown is made from black, 100% ultra-fine Merino virgin wool. The trim on the sleeves and lapels is dark blue and made from 100% fine cotton velvet. There is contrasting piping between the trim and outer fabric in dark blue.  The sleeves and back are pleated.  The chest and back are lined with paisley royal blue. A note that is not absolutely clear refers to "buttons below a concealed button placket,"  Gentlemen are exp...

  (c) 2023 NIPC all rights reserved St Salvator's College Quad 15 Feb 2023 Jane Lambert Just before Christmas Daniel Alexander KC held in  Oxford University Innovation Ltd v Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd  [2022] EWHC 3200 that the CEO of Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd had been a "consumer" within the meaning of reg 3 (1) of  The Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 when he signed up as a research student at Oxford University.   His contract incorporated Oxford's intellectual property policy which vested the right to apply for patents for student inventions in the University. The learned deputy judge assessed that provision for fairness. On the facts before him, Mr Alexander found that the term had been fair but had he found otherwise the intellectual property policy would not have bound the student.  I discussed the case and its implications in  Patents: Oxford University Innovation Ltd v Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd   on 23 Jan 2023 in N...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert On the day that my article   Patents - Interdigital Technology Corporation and others v Lenovo Group Ltd. and others   appeared in which I discussed Mr Justice Mellor's 225-page judgment in Interdigital Technology Corporation and others v Lenovo Group Ltd. and others   [2023] EWHC 539 (Pat ),  the Intellectual Property Office ("IPO") announced a questionnaire on standard essential patents ("SEPs") for SME small-cap and mid-cap businesses. This follows an earlier consultation on SEP licensing that the IPO launched on 7 Dec 2021.  I discussed it in  IPO Consultation on SEPs and Innovation   on 19 Dec 2021.  The IPO received 56 responses to that consultation.  The names of the respondents appear in Annex A  to a Summary of Responses to the Call for Views .  Their responses are analysed in that document.  Bearing in mind the costs of FRAND litigation and that it seems to involve only mass...

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3. 0.   Jane Lambert Yesterday the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published its Science and Technology Framework   which its press release described as "the government’s plan to cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030."  The aspiration to become a science and technology superpower by 2030 first appeared in  Global Britain in a competitive age   which I reviewed in an article by the same name in IP after Brexit on 19 March 2021 and it was renewed in    UK Innovation Strategy Leading the future by creating it   which I reviewed in UK Innovation Strategy   on 12 Aug 2021. The Science and Technology Framework is a much lighter document than the UK Innovation Strategy.  It is 19 pages long including the front and back cover and a foreword by the Secretary of State , Michelle Donelan MP on pages 5 and 6.   ...

Author Utilisateur:Ork.c h Licence CC BY-SA 2.0FR   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  operates the Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT") , Hague Agreement  and the Madrid Protocol .  These are international agreements that facilitate applications for patent, design or trade mark registrations in multiple countries and territories from a single filing. Those agreements simplify and greatly reduce the costs of obtaining international legal protection for technology, designs and brands. On 28 Feb 2023, the WIPO published its statistics for patent , design and trade mark registrations in 2022.  There had been a 0.3% increase in international patent applications from 277,182 in 2021 to 278,100 despite the pandemic, conflict in Ukraine, fluctuating energy prices and other adverse economic conditions.  There was a much sharper increase in design registration applications from 6,714 in 2021 to 7,973 in 20...

Author   Andrew Woodvine   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Yesterday I delivered a seminar on intellectual property law to the teams working on research, innovation, commercialization and partnership support for  Bangor University . They were the professionals who negotiate licence and consultancy agreements and set up spin-off companies to exploit research carried out at the University. I gave PowerPoint presentations on the following topics between 14:00 and 17:00 with short breaks for questions and answers: An overview of intellectual property law covering the difference between intellectual property and intellectual assets, categorization of intellectual property rights, how brands , designs , technology and creativity are protected, the main features of patents , registered designs and supplementary unregistered designs , copyrights , rights in performances , unregistered design rights , trade marks , passing off and ob...

St Salvator's College, St Andrews © 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert:  All rights reserved:   Jane Lambert It is often forgotten that law was once taught at St Andrews though not always in the town itself. St Andrews lost its law school in 1967 when Queen's College in Dundee became a separate university. Many St Andreans continued to make their way to the law after 1967 but they obtained their legal education elsewhere. In 2015. an Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research was established at St Andrews.  According to its website, it is "the home of outstanding cross-disciplinary research in the fields of law, legal history and constitutionalism."  The Institute's website also states that the University is home to a vibrant student law society .  I visited that society's website and noticed that its  partners included several leading law firms but no English or Welsh chambers or Scottish stables.  Curious as to why that should be, I contacted the soci...