NIPC News

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 ...

Author Basher Eyre ,  Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 ,  Source Wikipedia Rolls Building Jane Lambert A new guide to the practice and procedure of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC")  was published yesterday and came into force immediately. It is intended to help users and potential users of the court by explaining how its procedures work and by providing guidelines where appropriate. Small Claims Track Business outside London An important announcement of the new guide is that from October 2019, there will be district judges in each of the six Business and Property Court centres outside London (Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle) to hear matters in the IPEC small claims track . Appeals from decisions in the IPEC small claims track will be filed at the relevant appeal centre indicated in PD 52B . A judge of the multi-track will be made available to hear the appeal, either locally or in London, dependin...

Business and Property Courts The Business and Property Courts in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester and London went live yesterday. I discussed them in Launch of a Judicial Superhighway   on 12 July 2014 in IP North West and  The Leeds Business and Property Courts   on 12 July 2017 in IP Yorkshire. On 27 Sept 2017, the Judiciary issued a new 14-page advisory note  which I mentioned in   Better than the M4 - "The Judicial Superhighway"  2 Oct 2017. Relevance  This topic affects IP practitioners and owners as well as litigation lawyers throughout the UK, particularly those in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester. Commonwealth Games Birmingham has been chosen as the UK's candidate city to host the Commonwealth Grounds. Like all other major sporting events, the Games will rely on sponsorship, broadcasting and licensing revenues but, unlike the Olympics, there is nothing like the Nairobi Treaty or Olympic asso...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Wikpedia Commons Jane Lambert In "Success Fees and ATE Premiums in the Patents County Court: Henderson v All Around the World Recordings Ltd " 4 May 2013 NIPC Law, I blogged about Judge Birss QC's decision in  Henderson v All Around the World Recordings Ltd and Another [2013] EWPCC 19 (27 March 2013) where an impecunious singer song writer who had successfully brought proceedings in the Patents County Court for infringement of her performer's rights against a major record label was allowed  £52,484.25 in costs. Had she brought her claim in the Chancery Division she might well have been awarded £232,676.20. One of the reasons why Judge Birss QC would not allow her more was that "a litigant who wishes to recover a reasonable proportion of the totality of his of her legal costs has a clear option available, to litigate in the High Court. In that system none of the problems now faced by the claimant would...