NIPC News

St Salvator's College Author Andy Hawkins   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Although St Andrews lost its law school in 1967 when Queen's College became the University of Dundee, St Andrews graduates continued to enter the legal professions of all parts of the United Kingdom and many other countries.  Their entry into the law is eased by the University of St Andrews Law Society  a student organization supported by Herbert Smith Freehills  and other leading law firms .  The Society holds activities that prepare students for law school and a career in the law including moots, talks and workshops.   I was invited to return to St Andrews on Monday 4 Nov 2024, to judge a mooting competition.  I sat with Mike Gettinby  Chief Legal Officer at the University of St Andrews and  Paulina Kachalova , Mistress of the Moots, to judge one contest and with Callum Friel , Master of the Moots, to judge the...

By Herbert Baker - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/2347434439/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68619795 Downing College, Cambridge Jane Lambert I have been chairing sessions and speaking at the Cambridge IP Law Summer School  on and off since 2017 and have enjoyed every one tremendously but I think this year's was the best ever.  That was because there was an exceptional cohort of attendees drawn from the Civil Service, Magic Circle law firms, Sweden, Turkiye and business and an updated programme which included artificial intelligence, database rights, geographical indications and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The Summer School took place at Downing College between Monday 12 Aug and Friday 16 Aug 3035. There was a different agenda each day.    The first day's agenda was  "Fundamentals" , the second day's was "Patents" , the third's was " Soft IP" , the fourth's  "...

By XrysD - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133523323 English Local Authorities   Jane Lambert Local enterprise partnerships ("LEPs") were collaborations between local authorities, businesses and universities to take over responsibility for local economic development from the regional development agencies.  They were established by the Coalition government shortly after it came into office.  I wrote about their formation in Local Enterprise Partnerships Begin to Take Shape   in the  NIPC Inventors Club blog on 21 Oct 2010. In his Spring budget statement, Mr Jeremy Hunt MP, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a consultation on transferring the functions of the LEPs to local authorities (see Government Plans to abolish LEPs  by Kwame Boakye in the Local Government Chronicle of 15 March 2023).  After an information-gathering exercise by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert On 5 March 2024, I wrote in  Patents: a New Resource Hub on Standard Essential Patents in May and HMG's other Proposals on FRAND Licensing   that the IPO guidance document Standard Essential Patents: 2024 forward look  promised an online SEP Resource Hub by May 2024 which would be a repository of tools, guidance and other material designed to help SMEs navigate what the IPO called "the SEPs ecosystem." The guidance also promised signposting to dispute resolution procedures, information on patent pools, and court processes to resolve disputes. Possibly because an election was called in May the resource hub's launch was delayed until 22 July 2024. It is now up and running and can be accessed at  https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/seps-resource-hub on the Intellectual Property Office ("IPO") website.   The best place to start is the IPO press release  One-stop SEPs Resource Hub launched by UK IPO  ...

Ross Church / Downing College, Cambridge / CC BY-SA 2.0 Jane Lambert The 23rd IP Law Summer School will take place at Downing College, Cambridge between 12 and 16 Aug 2024 and I shall speak on FRAND  and IP Litigation in the English Courts .  I will also chair the sessions on patents  and contentious IP .  In Cambridge IP Law Summer School   I described the course as "a rare opportunity to listen to some of the leading practitioners in intellectual property law in beautiful surroundings in the company of some very bright young men and women from around the world."   This year's summer school promises to be one of the best ever with a revised agenda  and some excellent speakers .  Among this year's new topics Parminder Lally and Debora Dorn of Appleyard Lees will discuss IP and artificial intelligence and a speaker whose name is yet to be announced will talk about geographical indications . The knowledge imparted in the classroom is only ...

Author   Chensiyuan   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert The scheme known as direct or public access by which members of the public may approach barristers without first instructing a solicitor or other intermediary came into being on 1 July 2004. The 20th anniversary of the start of that scheme has coincided with the Bar Council's launch of a new Direct Access Portal  and three YouTube videos entitled What is Direct Access? , What does a Direct Access Barrister do?  and How to use the Direct Access Portal?    I was one of the first barristers to qualify for direct access.  I received my first instructions through the scheme within days of finishing the course.   I have continued to receive a flow of direct access work ever since. The scheme implemented the recommendations of a report by a working party chaired by Sir Sydney Kentridge KC with the title  Competition in Professions.  The   re...

  jane Lambert World Intellectual Property Day is a worldwide celebration of the legal protection of innovation and creativity that takes place on or around the 26 April of every year.  That day has been chosen because it is the anniversary of the day on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization  came into force.  The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  is the United Nations specialist agency for intellectual property. Every year World IP Day revolves around a special theme.  In 2021 it was  IP & SMEs: Taking your ideas to market .  In 2022 it was IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future .  Last year it was Women and IP: accelerating innovation and creativity .  This year it is  IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity  which is certainly the most complex and arguably the most ambitious theme ever, "SDGs" stand for "Sustainable Develop...

  Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization has published reports on unlocking IP-backed funding in China , Jamaica , Singapore , Switzerland  and the UK . The report on the UK was launched yesterday in London by Viscount Camrose , Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for artificial intelligence and intellectual property and Daren Tang, Director-General of WIPO on 19 March 2024 (see the Intellectual Property Office's press release Report launched into UK's IP-backed finance landscape   19 March 2024). The report, which can be downloaded as a PDF from the WIPO website consists of 47 pages of text organized in the following sections: Acronyms (common abbreviations such as "HMRC" and "SME"); Glossary Executive Summary The United Kingdonm's Journey  Types and Sources of IP Funds for equity investment and lending The Legal and Regulatory Framework for UK Finance covering accounting standards and financial regulation as well as law Non-regula...

Intellectual Property Office Crown Copyright 2007  Open Government Licence v3.0     Jane Lambert 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. On paper, this looks like a very fair arrangement and in theory, it should work very well but in fact, it doesn't.   One problem is that implementers use a standard without paying any royalties or licence fees to the SEP owners arguing that their patents are invalid or not essential for compliance with the patent.   Another is that SEP owners and implement...

Author Bashereyre  Licence   Jane Lambert Eleven years ago to this day, I accepted an invitation to join 4-5 Gray's Inn Square as a tenant.  One of the reasons why I did so was because of the set's strength in arbitration,  We have a strong panel that includes members with experience in intellectual property such as  James Bridgeman SC  and  Elizabeth Nicholls  as well as me. On Thursday 8 Feb 2024 I took part in a panel discussion on "Damages Issues in IP and Life Science Disputes at the Butchers' Hal l in the City of London. My fellow panellists were  Amanda Ebbutt of TaylorWessing,  Andrew Tepperman of Charles River Associates and  Epaminontas Triantafilou of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Our moderator was  Shreya Gupta of Oxera Consulting. Our panel discussion was one of three sessions at GAR LIVE on Damages , a half-day symposium presented by the Global Arbitration  Review .  The other sessions we...

  Jane Lambert On Thursday 8 Feb 2024 I shall take part in a panel discussion on damages issues in IP and life sciences disputes  as part of the Global Arbitration Review's Damages symposium .   I share the platform with very distinguished practitioners.  There will also be talks on simplifying evidence for tribunals, a question time and plenty of networking opportunities.   Anyone who wishes to attend can register here, There is growing interest in arbitration and other forms of ADR for the resolution of intellectual property and technology disputes. In  WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre Report 2023   (19 Jan 2024 NIPC News ), I noted that the World Intellectual Property ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation Centre reported that it had disposed of 679 disputes in 2023 which was a 24% increase over the previous year and a 280% increase in the last 5 years (see  WIPO ADR Highlights 2023  18 Jan 2024). There are several reasons for t...

  Jane Lambert About 30 years ago, I attended a workshop on the arbitration of intellectual property disputes. The speakers included  Dr Francis Gurry  and His Honour Peter Ford.  At that time, Dr Gurry was an Australian academic who had written a rather good book on the law of confidence . He went on to become Director-General of the WIPO. Peter Ford was the first judge of the Patents County Court which was the predecessor to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC"). Two alternative dispute resolution services were set up as a result of that workshop.  One was an arbitration and mediation panel attached to the Patents County Court under the leadership of Prof. Bryan Niblett.  I was a founder member.   I am not sure whether we ever had a case,  Certainly, nothing was referred to me and the panel was disbanded after a few years.   The other was the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation...