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Intellectual Property UK
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September 04, 2025
ECJ Says Experts Not Needed To Weigh Design Rights In Lego
Europe's highest court ruled Thursday that the question over whether a product infringes on design rights doesn't need to be answered by a technical expert, saying an informed user should be able to make the call in a dispute over protections for Lego pieces.
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September 04, 2025
Poland Must Pay Commission €8M For Copyright Failings
The European Union's highest court ordered Poland on Thursday to pay the European Commission €8.3 million ($11.1 million) alongside daily fines for adopting the bloc's copyright law reforms three years after the deadline had passed.
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September 04, 2025
Energy Giant OMV Gets Hygiene Biz's TM Nixed On Appeal
Austrian energy major OMV has persuaded a European Union court to nix an identical mark of its name, overturning an earlier ruling that the reputation of its brand in the oil sector did not overlap with the other company's feminine hygiene products.
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September 04, 2025
3M Loses Appeal For Hand-Held Spray Gun EU Patent
3M Innovative Properties Co., a unit of U.S. tech conglomerate 3M, has lost its appeal against a decision that blocks its European patent for a hand-held spray gun.
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September 04, 2025
UKIPO Weighs Protection For AI-Generated Designs
The U.K. Intellectual Property Office said Thursday that it is reviewing whether artificial intelligence-generated designs should be eligible for protection in Britain.
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September 03, 2025
Italian Police Take Assets Of Cos. Accused Of €40M VAT Fraud
Italian authorities seized assets Wednesday from two software companies, uncovering evidence that they defrauded European governments of around €40 million ($46.7 million) in value-added taxes, the European Public Prosecutor's Office and Italian Financial Police said.
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September 03, 2025
The Biggest UK IP Developments Of 2025 So Far
British courts have opened the doors for brand owners to crack down on look-alikes, gone back and forth on whether parties should agree to a license mid-patent dispute, and are staring down the barrel of a future where European courts can rule on infringement of U.K. patents.
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September 03, 2025
HP Bars German Co. From Selling Rival Ink Cartridges In EU
HP convinced Europe's patent court on Wednesday to stop a German shop from selling rival ink cartridges while it continues to fight HP's infringement claims because shoppers might permanently switch to cheaper knockoffs and irremediably undercut HP's market position.
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September 03, 2025
Japanese Biz Gets Brake Friction Material Patent Trimmed
The European Patent Office has partly upheld an appeal by a German trade association, cutting a patent held by Japanese manufacturer Akebono Brake Industry Co. Ltd. over copper-free friction materials for brake pads.
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September 03, 2025
Warner Bros. Beats German Production Co.'s 'W&B' TM
Warner Bros. convinced a European Union court on Wednesday to nix a German production company's trademark application for "W&B TV," after proving that the public would mix up the sign with its shield logo.
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September 03, 2025
Beats Electronics Can't Block Chinese Rival's 'Db Debra' TM
Audio retailer Beats has lost its attempt to prevent a Chinese rival from getting a "Db Debra" trademark in the U.K. as it failed to prove that there is a risk of confusion because a similar "b" icon appears in its mark.
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September 02, 2025
Meril Forces Edwards To Help Pay Legal Costs In UPC Spat
Meril Life Sciences convinced the Unified Patent Court on Tuesday to force Edwards Lifesciences to pay 25% of its legal costs because it had partially succeeded in its bid to nix the rival's heart valve technology.
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September 02, 2025
Boston Scientific Unit Defends Heart Valve Patent From Abbott
A subsidiary of Boston Scientific has convinced appellate officials to uphold a patent for a stent device that props open damaged heart valves, showing that scientists wouldn't have similarly arranged pockets on its seal to prevent blood from leaking.
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September 02, 2025
Payments Co.'s NFT Patent Denied Over 'Flawed' Fraud Claim
U.S. payments company Blackhawk Network Inc. has been denied a U.K. patent for a method of buying non-fungible tokens using a scannable code, after officials found that the system does not prevent fraud as the business had claimed.
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September 02, 2025
DexCom Loses EU Patent For Glucose Sensor Design
European officials have deprived DexCom Inc. of its protections for a continuous glucose monitoring device, ruling that the medical device maker's description of the technology exceeded the scope of its original application.
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September 02, 2025
EPO Won't Interpret Patents Narrowly Based On Descriptions
A European Patent Office appeals panel has ruled that it will not perform "interpretive somersaults" to read the wording of patent claims more narrowly based on features set out in the description of the invention.
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September 01, 2025
J&J Units Can't Get Early UPC Injunction Over Stapling Tech
Two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries have failed to secure an injunction blocking a German distributor from selling surgical stapling instruments that allegedly infringe one of its patents, as Europe's Patent Court ruled they waited five months too long to file their request.
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September 01, 2025
Thaler Loses Fight To Claim Invention He'd Credited To His AI
An English court on Monday dismissed a bid by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to register divisional patent protections for an invention that he had previously claimed were created by his artificial intelligence system, DABUS.
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September 01, 2025
Bayer Can Keep Xarelto Profits Earned During Sales Ban
A London court ruled Monday that Bayer can keep the profits it banked from selling blood-thinning treatment Xarelto during an interim sales ban that stopped generic-drugmakers infringing the now-revoked patent.
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September 01, 2025
Siemens Fails To Get Computer-Aided Design Patent At EPO
Siemens has lost its latest attempt to secure a European patent for its computer-aided design technology as it failed to persuade an appeals panel that its application sets out the invention with the necessary clarity.
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September 01, 2025
Vogue Owner Blocks Entrepreneur's 'Vogue Couture' TM In UK
The owner of Vogue magazine has blocked an individual from registering "Vogue Couture" as a trademark to sell clothing, convincing British officials that shoppers would think his products were a pricier catalog in the fashion magazine's brand.
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September 01, 2025
Gateley Buys IP Biz Groom Wilkes & Wright For Up To £9M
Gateley (Holdings) PLC said Monday that it has bought Groom Wilkes & Wright, a boutique intellectual property firm, in a transaction worth up to £9 million ($12 million) as the professional services group seeks to broaden its business.
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August 29, 2025
Telecom Body Backs EU Bid To Revise Product Law Regime
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has backed the European Commission's plans to reform the New Legislative Framework for product marketing, specifically requesting that the bloc restore the presumption of conformity.
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August 29, 2025
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen Prosecco DOC Consortium bring an intellectual property claim against a distributor, the Serious Fraud Office bring a civil recovery claim against the ex-wife of a solicitor jailed over a £19.5 million fraud scheme, and law firm Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen LLP sue its former client, the bankrupt Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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August 29, 2025
Decathlon Trims Lidl's Patent Invalidity Counterattack In UPC
Decathlon has convinced Europe's patent court to disregard part of Lidl's latest written response to the sports equipment retailer's patent infringement case over a pop-up camping tent.
Expert Analysis
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10 Things To Know About The Coming EU Unified Patent Court
When the Unified Patent Court opens next year, it will represent a paradigm shift for adversarial patent proceedings in Europe, and practitioners should familiarize themselves now with this new, centralized litigation system, say Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller and Thomas Kronberger at Grünecker.
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7 Key Takeaways For Litigating Willful Patent Infringement
Brian Nolan and Manuel Velez at Mayer Brown explore the impact of the Federal Circuit's 2021 SRI International v. Cisco Systems decision, and six other areas recent parties have focused on when litigating willful infringement in the latest case law.
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Trademark Ruling Brings Clarity To Product Defect Liability
The recent Court of Justice of the EU ruling in Fennia v. Philips, its first concerning the trademark aspect of producer liability in Article 3(1) of Directive 85/374, brings greater clarity to the question of compensation in the event of a claim for defective products, say Radboud Ribbert and Thomas van Weeren at Greenberg Traurig.
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Appointments Shape EU Unified Patent Court Before Launch
A series of judiciary appointments at the EU Unified Patent Court help put the court on track for its April opening, while also reflecting a patent-friendly enforcement system, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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5 Considerations In Preparing For EU's New Patent System
With the upcoming implementation of the unitary patent and Unified Patent Court, Europe gets closer to its long-term goal of one EU patent that can be enforced in one court, and non-EU patent owners and applicants will have strategic decisions to make, say Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller and Thomas Kronberger at Grünecker.
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Reexamining Negative Limitations After Novartis Patent Ruling
The Federal Circuit's decision and denial of rehearing in Novartis v. Accord has created exacting standards that must be met in order for negative limitations in patent claims to satisfy the written description requirement, but whether the dissent is correct that the majority opinion heightened the standard is an arguable point, say Jonathan Fitzgerald and Jaime Choi at Snell & Wilmer.
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UK Courts' 3rd-Party Disclosure Rule Sets Global Precedent
The quiet change about to take place in the English Civil Procedure Rules, enabling U.K. courts to require pre-action disclosure of information from overseas third parties, is uncharted territory and will have profound implications for any organization that handles assets on behalf of a party, says Simon Bushell at Seladore Legal.
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Zara TM Ruling Shows Prefiling Clearance Is Always Advisable
The recent Trade Mark Tribunal decision regarding Zara and House of Zana demonstrates the importance of conducting prefiling clearance investigations, so that where opposition may be anticipated, a strategy can be put in place, says Melanie Harvey at Birketts.
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Dutch Merger May Promote Behavioral Remedies Across EU
A Dutch tribunal's recent clearing of the Sanoma-Iddink deal might further encourage merging parties in the EU to offer — and government agencies to accept — behavioral remedies, which was rarer when more emphasis was put on divestments, says Robert Hardy at Greenberg Traurig.
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How Will UK Address AI Patent Infringement?
As artificial intelligence-related patent litigation activity inevitably approaches, a review of U.K. principles of direct and indirect liability offers insight into how courts may address questions involving cloud-based technology and arguments related to training AI models, say Alexander Korenberg at Kilburn & Strode and Toby Bond at Bird & Bird.
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Law Commission's 'Data Objects' Proposal Is Far-Reaching
The Law Commission’s proposals to recognize data objects as a new category of personal property would bring fundamental changes were they to be implemented, and would have significant ramifications for finance litigation, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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UK Rulings Give Chinese Courts Wide Powers In IP Disputes
The recent rulings in Nokia v. Oppo and Philips v. Oppo open the door for Chinese courts to adjudicate worldwide rate-setting terms for standard-essential patents, and in so doing present a timely wake-up call as to China's influence, say F. Scott Kieff at George Washington University Law School and Thomas Grant at the University of Cambridge.
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Swatch V. Samsung Offers IP Warning To Platform Operators
The recent U.K. High Court decision of Swatch v. Samsung demonstrates that while platform operators may wish to exercise greater control over the apps distributed on their platforms, this carries with it a corresponding duty to apply due diligence to protect the intellectual property rights of third parties, say Alex Borthwick and William Hillson at Powell Gilbert.
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Opinion
The USPTO Should Give Ukraine Even More Help
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office should take three direct steps to help confer upon Ukraine's patent office the same benefits it previously granted to Russia's Rospatent, in addition to the sanctions the USPTO has already conferred in response to the attack on Ukraine, say David Kappos at Cravath, Teresa Summers at Summers Law Group and Andrew Baluch at Smith Baluch.
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International Law May Protect Foreign Investors In Russia
Investment treaties that allow eligible foreign investors to bring claims for compensation by way of international arbitration may offer a better, or the only, avenue to recover losses for assets that have been seized by Russia, say attorneys at Cooley.