NIPC News

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...