NIPC News

Napier's Bones Author Kim Traynor   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert I introduced St Andrews Innovation  in my article on Connect-Ed Network Meet Up on "Engaging and Supporting Female Founders" in the Cathedral Room at Walter Bower House on St Andrews's new Eden Campus , which I attended on 15 April 2025. The object in the photo is a calculation aid called "Napier's bones."   The name Napier refers to its inventor, John Napier , who studied at St Andrews around 1563. Napier's bones show that St Andrews's academics, graduates and students have been innovating for a very long time.  At the beginning of the academic year, they celebrate their creativity, collaboration and forward-thinking entrepreneurship with an Innovation Week consisting of talks, workshops and networking opportunities. This year's Innobation Week takes place between 6 and 10 Oct 2025.   Here are some of the events: 6 Oct 13:00 - 15:00...

Design Museum, London Author Anthony O'Neill   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Every so often, the government of the day has a bash at changing design law.  The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 abolished copyright as a means of protecting product designs, introduced a new intellectual property right known as unregistered design right and modified the Registered Designs Act 1949.  That statute was further modified by the Registered Design Regulations, which implemented Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs.  Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs introduced two more IP rights known respectively as registered and unregistered Community designs.  The Intellectual Property Act 2014 brought further modifications to both registered designs and unregistered design rights.  Brexit abolished regist...

Author World Intellectual Property Organization  Licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internat Jane Lambert The Global Innovation Index ("GII") analyses innovation ecosystems across 139 economies, tracking global innovation trends through investment patterns, technological progress, adoption rates, and socioeconomic impact.  The United Kingdom ranked 4th in that index, behind Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States, in 2021, 2022, and 2023. In 2024, it dropped to 5th, overtaken by Singapore.  In 2025, it was also leapfrogged by South Korea, which rose from 6th in 2024. The UK is ahead of Germany, Japan and France which are now outside the top 10 altogether.  Germany was 9th last year, but has slipped to 11th.  Its position in the top 10 has been taken by Germany. Japan has risen from 13th to 12th.  France has dropped from 12th to 13th (see Figure 1, "The GII Dynamo: The Top 15 Innovators, 2021–2025 "). The performance of each participating count...

By Muhammad Karns - Judicial Office Twitter feed., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78284579 Jane Lambert Earlier today I uploaded to Slideshare a presentation that I gave in February 2023 to members of the University of St Andrews Law Society  entitled A Career at the Bar of England and Wales .  I did so because I get a lot of enquiries on how to make a career in IP, as well as requests for work experience.  I had just come across a website called IP Careers   which lists careers advice , courses ,  jobs  and news .  Its only drawback is that it focuses on opportunities for patent and trade mark attorneys and openings at the Intellectual Property Office and European Patent Office but does not seem to have much for barristers or solicitors specializing in intellectual property. A website that does cover all the intellectual property professions is Careers in Ideas  which is managed by IP Inclusive , a great organizati...

World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva Author Emmanuel Berrod  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   S ource     Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert I mentioned the government's consultation on standard essential patents in  Latest Consultation on Standard Essential Patent Licensing   on 18 July 2025.  One of the topics is "Tell us how alternative dispute resolution services work for standard essential patent disputes."   According to its "WIPO ADR for FRAND Disputes" page , the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre has administered some 80 WIPO mediation cases relating to FRAND licensing negotiations. Here are examples of some of the disputes that the Centre has handled: "Mediations between large SEP holders and implementers in Asia and Europe to facilitate the agreement of FRAND licensing terms. Requests for WIPO Mediation relating to licensing negotiations between patent pool administrators and implementers in relation to ongoing unsuccessful...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Home of  the Small Claims Track Author Skip88   Public Domain   Source  Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Yesterday, HM Courts and Tribunal Service published a Guide to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track  and a glossary of  Common legal terms used in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court .   It aims to help users and potential users of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC") small claims track by giving practical tips.  Although it is primarily intended for litigants in person, intellectual property practitioners will also find it useful.  The guide is divided into the following sections: Introduction About the IPEC and the Small Claims Track How to decide if a claim is suitable for the IPEC Small Claims Trac k What to expect in your dealings with the court     What to do before issuing a claim     The procedure for claims in the IPEC Sma...

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...

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...

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...

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 ,...

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...

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...

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...

Jane Lambert  When I was called to the Bar our design law was relatively straightforward. Features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article by any industrial process or means with eye appeal that were new or original could be registered under the Registered Designs Act 1949 for 5 renewable periods of 5 years each up to a total of 25 years. Design drawings for manufactured products were artistic works within the meaning of s.3 (1) of the Copyright Act 1956 and so long as the drawing was original copyright protected the design for the life of the author of the drawing plus 50 years. All this came to an end on 1 Aug 1989 when the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force.  The Act overhauled the Registered Designs Act 1949 and provided that it was "not an infringement of any copyright in a design document or model recording or embodying a design for anything other than an artistic work or a typeface to make an article to the design or t...

Diagram of the Turing test Author Juan Alberto Sánchez Margallo Licence CC BY 2.5   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Following the Court of Appeal's judgment in Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks v Emotional Perception AI Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 825. [2024] Bus LR 1589, [2024] WLR(D) 339 on 19 July 2024 which I discussed in Patents - the Appeal in Comptroller v Emotional Perceptions   on 26 Aug 2024, the UK Intellectual Property Office has published new  Guidelines for examining patent applications relating to artificial intelligence (AI)  and  Scenarios applying the guidelines for examining patent applications for AI . The Guidelines state that AI inventions as computer-implemented inventions. They explain that AI inventions rely on mathematical methods and computer programs in some way. The law excludes from patent protection inventions relating solely to a mathematical method or a program for a computer but when a...