NIPC News

Standard youtube Licence Jane Lambert Cities have been motors of innovation and creativity throughout history,  Think of Periclean Athens, renaissance Florence, enlightenment Edinburgh and Silicon Valley.  Every year, the WIPO (the UN specialist agency for intellectual property) publishes a ranking of science and technology hotspots.   The list is compiled using the following methodology: "Inventors listed in patent applications under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), spanning the years 2014 to 2018.  Authors listed in scientific publications in the Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and covering the same period.  The geocoding of inventor and author addresses and the use of density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm to the geocoded inventor and author points." The above film shows the top 10 clusters for 2020.  From a British perspective, it is disappointing that there are no British clusters i...

Author Voytek Pavlik Public Domain Dedication   Source Wikipedia Cryptocurrency  Jane Lambert Financial technology ("FinTech") is one of the most rapidly growing technologies on the planet and one that the UK is ideally placed to develop for the reasons that Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, explained in his presentation  to the Deutsche Bundesbank G20 conference on “Digitising finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy” (see also his speech  on YouTube). I have written a number of articles on the topic which I have indexed in the "Further Reading" table of my FinTech Index page .  The latest of those articles is my note on the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce's  Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts   which I published on Saturday. The LegalTech Delivery Panel which presented the Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts has also posted a scaleup glossary  to its website together with...

Brexit Despite Mrs May's conciliatory speech in Florence, the two sides in the withdrawal agreement negotiations seem to be no closer on the one issue that matters, namely, how can the British government's commitments to such an agreement be guaranteed if the UK will not accept the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice after March 2019 (see Jane Lambert Brexit Briefing - September 2017 3 Oct 2017 NIPC Brexit). Despite her warm words, Mrs May reaffirms that no deal is better than a bad deal and, of course, she is right. But the same is true for the 27 states that remain in the EU. A deal that does not guarantee Britain's commitments to the withdrawal agreement to the same extent as they would be bound would be a bad deal for them.  They cannot be expected to agree to it. That is why the European Parliament overwhelmingly concluded that insufficient progress had been made in the withdrawal agreement talks to enable the negotiators to move on to trade (see the Eu...

Author SSolbergj   Australia_(orthographic_projection).svg : Creative Commons Attribution Shae Alike 3.0 unreported licence Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert I should like to congratulate my colleague, Caroline Kenny QC , on her election as President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in Australia  (see  Top QC elected President of Australian global arbitration body   30 May 2017). Caroline is one of several distinguished international tenants of 4-5 Gray's Inn Square. We have a distinguished team of arbitrators and mediators based in the United Kingdom of which I am one.  I specialize in resolving intellectual property and technology disputes and am a member of the WIPO's panel of neutrals . I am also on the IPO's list of mediation providers . Finally, the London branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators is holding a seminar on ADR and film disputes at the offices of Herbert Smith Freehills at Exchange House, Primrose...

Jane Lambert In his Final Report in his Chancery Modernization Review Lord Justice Briggs recommended a closer focus on ADR at case management conferences ( "CMC" ) and, in particular, that "case management should be seen to be directed toward dispute resolution, rather than merely preparation for a full trial which is unlikely to take place." He specifically recommended requirements for parties to address the timing, type of and impediments to ADR in an expanded questionnaire before the first CMC and for the court at the first CMC to give detailed consideration to assisting the parties in the choice and timing of ADR. Traditionally, ADR has been seen as an alternative to litigation rather than a set of options to facilitate the speedy and cost-effective resolution of a dispute. It is perhaps one of the consequences of the decision in Scott v. Avery , (1856) 5 H.L.Cas. 811. In fact, mediation, early neutral evaluation and all the other methods of d...

I presented the final talk in my introduction to IP on Wednesday.  Like the Introduction  and the talks on  Branding and Creative Output  I focussed on the different ways the law can protect investment in an intellectual asset. Until recently technology was connected with manufacturing which probably explains why patents protect new products and processes. The European Patent Convention , which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, specifically excludes from the definition of patentable inventions programs for computers, methods of doing business and the presentation of information. Yet much of the British economy is now based on those activities.   For that reason I discussed not simply patents and trade secrets but also the different legal tools for protecting investment in software, data analysis, web 2.0 services and so on such as copyright, database right, design right and plant breeders' rights. You will find my slides here: : How the...

Robert Griffiths QC A lot of IP law relates to sport. Trade marks, association rights, broadcasting copyrights, patents for sports equipment - you name it  There is some IP in it somewhere. Our chambers have always been strong in sport and one of our stars is Robert Griffiths QC . Not only is he a sports lawyer, he is also a sportsman with a particularly strong interest in cricket.  Imagine my delight yesterday morning when he called me to say that he realized that he was actually an intellectual property lawyer as well as everything else and offered to lead our IP, Technology and Media Law Group.   I shall be adding his details to our blog shortly, Other new team members with a strong interest in sport include Samuel Okoronkwo  who knows all there is to know about football  as he is an FA licensed lawyer and agents as well as barrister and Ruhi Sethi  who is a long distance runner. Ruhi is a great addition to the team because she ...

Huddersfield Media Centre, Source The Media Centre Jane Lambert Since 2004 I have supported Yorkshire businesses and their professional advisers by offering specialist advice on intellectual property and technology law and representation before the Patents and Patents County Courts, Chancery Division and Intellectual Property Office tribunals as the only full time specialist intellectual barrister outside London. I have provided those services from Huddersfield Media Centre . Although my practice is now managed by Stephen Broom and George Scanlan I am still there. You can still get through to me on 01484 590090 or 0113 320 3232 or by filling in my contact form . The big difference is that I am no longer on my own. I can now call upon support from my excellent colleagues in our IP and Technology Law Group as well as those from other departments such as Atlas Tax Chambers whose members include Anne Fairpo , an authority on IP and tax. O...