In this age of celebrity endorsed products and lucrative licensing deals we are familiar with the rich and famous stamping their ‘identity’ into trademarks covering everything from perfume to pasta sauce and kitchenware to luxury watches. Lately however, this kind of intellectual property has taken a very royal turn and it seemed an opportune moment…
As the world looks back 50 years to the first moon landing in 1969 and those iconic words uttered by Neil Armstrong: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” it is easy to be caught up in the sheer wonder and awe of this incredible Apollo 11 mission. But the stark…
Over the next few weeks we’ll be debunking five common myths relating to intellectual property (IP); here is the first in the series. Starting a new business and finding a name for your company is exciting, but probably less so is the process of registering your company name for tax and legal purposes at HMRC…
Forest Whole Foods is on a mission: “to make organic, whole food affordable so people can build themselves and the next generation with honest, healthy food.” Their mantra is “to make a natural life accessible so that more people are eating real food and cooking from scratch.” Forest Whole Foods is an online organic food…
Client Case Study: The Pitch-Saver Sign As the owner of a motorhome who travelled regularly across the UK, Mike Jubb realised that the old-fashioned sign with a stake was not the best solution to reserving a pitch for his motorhome, especially on a hardstanding. Mike came up with the idea of using a durable, plastic…
The history of copyright in the UK dates back to the 16th century when an author had to register a book he had finished writing with The Stationers Company which gave him sole permission to reproduce the book thereafter. This form of protection was available for the next 200 years. Acts of Parliament were later…
So you’re over the first hurdle: you know what your trademark will look like (you’ve come up with a great name and/or logo) but now you must consider the list of goods and services you wish your trademark to cover. Goods and services are split up into classes for the purposes of trademark applications. The…
Yesterday EU directive 2015/2436 came into force resulting in the OHIM rebranding to the EUIPO and ‘Community’ trademarks being renamed EU trademarks. Aside from cosmetic tinkering the directive also introduced changes to both procedural and substantive law relating to the newly named EU trademark. Fee Changes Of most interest to trademark applicants and owners will…
As reported on our blog in May 2014, Magmatic (manufacturer of the Trunki suitcase) lost its High Court appeal in its infringement action against PMS. Trunki subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court and on 9 March 2016 Lord Neuberger issued the court’s judgment. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal that…
Whether you’re firm is just starting out, you are a growing company or you own a large multi-national, you’re hopefully acutely aware of the role your employees must play in protecting your IP. The question is: are they? A recent survey carried out by data control specialists Clearswift found that an alarming number of employees…
