NIPC News

  jane Lambert World Intellectual Property Day is a worldwide celebration of the legal protection of innovation and creativity that takes place on or around the 26 April of every year.  That day has been chosen because it is the anniversary of the day on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization  came into force.  The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  is the United Nations specialist agency for intellectual property. Every year World IP Day revolves around a special theme.  In 2021 it was  IP & SMEs: Taking your ideas to market .  In 2022 it was IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future .  Last year it was Women and IP: accelerating innovation and creativity .  This year it is  IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity  which is certainly the most complex and arguably the most ambitious theme ever, "SDGs" stand for "Sustainable Develop...

  Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization has published reports on unlocking IP-backed funding in China , Jamaica , Singapore , Switzerland  and the UK . The report on the UK was launched yesterday in London by Viscount Camrose , Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for artificial intelligence and intellectual property and Daren Tang, Director-General of WIPO on 19 March 2024 (see the Intellectual Property Office's press release Report launched into UK's IP-backed finance landscape   19 March 2024). The report, which can be downloaded as a PDF from the WIPO website consists of 47 pages of text organized in the following sections: Acronyms (common abbreviations such as "HMRC" and "SME"); Glossary Executive Summary The United Kingdonm's Journey  Types and Sources of IP Funds for equity investment and lending The Legal and Regulatory Framework for UK Finance covering accounting standards and financial regulation as well as law Non-regula...

  Jane Lambert On Thursday 8 Feb 2024 I shall take part in a panel discussion on damages issues in IP and life sciences disputes  as part of the Global Arbitration Review's Damages symposium .   I share the platform with very distinguished practitioners.  There will also be talks on simplifying evidence for tribunals, a question time and plenty of networking opportunities.   Anyone who wishes to attend can register here, There is growing interest in arbitration and other forms of ADR for the resolution of intellectual property and technology disputes. In  WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre Report 2023   (19 Jan 2024 NIPC News ), I noted that the World Intellectual Property ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation Centre reported that it had disposed of 679 disputes in 2023 which was a 24% increase over the previous year and a 280% increase in the last 5 years (see  WIPO ADR Highlights 2023  18 Jan 2024). There are several reasons for t...

  Jane Lambert About 30 years ago, I attended a workshop on the arbitration of intellectual property disputes. The speakers included  Dr Francis Gurry  and His Honour Peter Ford.  At that time, Dr Gurry was an Australian academic who had written a rather good book on the law of confidence . He went on to become Director-General of the WIPO. Peter Ford was the first judge of the Patents County Court which was the predecessor to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC"). Two alternative dispute resolution services were set up as a result of that workshop.  One was an arbitration and mediation panel attached to the Patents County Court under the leadership of Prof. Bryan Niblett.  I was a founder member.   I am not sure whether we ever had a case,  Certainly, nothing was referred to me and the panel was disbanded after a few years.   The other was the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation...