NIPC News

Gray's Inn Square Source Wikipedia Building on our Introduction to IP  seminar on the 26 June 2013 we are holding workshops on: Branding Law  - that is to say trade marks, passing off, geographical indications, domain names on 25 Sept 2013; Creative Output - that is to say copyrights, rights in performances, moral rights and related rights on 30 Oct 2013; and Technology Law - patents, trade secrets, unregistered designs rights (including semiconductor topographies) and plant varieties on 27 Nov 2013. Each of these workshops will last 90 minutes plus breaks on the last Wednesday of each month between 16:00 and 18:00.   If you attend, you will qualify for CPD points from the SRA or BSB.   These talks will lay a foundation for more advanced workshops on the substantive law, licensing and litigation.   Best of all they will provide an opportunity to meet out new IP, technology and media law team who will attend as many of the talks a...

Jane Lambert Not long ago most commercial practitioners spent a lifetime in the law without ever having to advise on an intellectual property matter or coming anywhere near the Patents Court. It was a specialist field with its own court having its own rules, the judges and practitioners of which spoke an almost impenetrable argot. Most law schools ignored IP except as a specialist option with the result that many practitioners did not have a clue what it was all about. There were horror stories of solicitors receiving writs for writing the same sort of letter before action as they would write in any other case and it was all horribly expensive. Best left to specialist law firms like Bird & Bird and Bristows and the handful of specialist counsel who knew what they were doing. The internet and programmes like Dragons' Den    have changed all that. Clients often with quite small businesses are now coming to you with questions about software licensing and doma...