On 1 April 2015, His Honour Judge Hacon handed down judgment in respect of a patent for a “mailer” (the “Mailer Patent”). A mailer was described by the court as “a form, letter or other type of business communication which is folded after completion, sealed by means of…
Back in the heady days of 2012, Zynga launched its addictive word play game “Scramble with Friends”. Any visit to Facebook would find that another of your friends had fallen prey to its charms and invited you to join them. However, success and popularity like that could not…
On 27 March 2015, Waterfront obtained judgment in favour of its client Vertical Leisure in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court. The case involved the registration by a Mr Peter Bowley of 12 domain names that incorporated the terms “X-Pole” and “Silkii” used by Vertical Leisure in relation to…
Within the last 48 hours a US jury have found that the 2013 Blurred Lines single by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke was in breach of the copyright in Marvin Gaye’s song Got To Give It Up, released in 1977. The Blurred Lines song was one of the…
Over the past month there have been almost as many news stories about Taylor Swift’s trade mark strategy as she (or at least her trade mark lawyers) have filed trade mark applications. Taylor Swift is not alone in the celebrity world in taking an aggressive approach to the…
Can you use an unlicensed image of a celebrity on your products? Pop Star, Rihanna, was successful in stopping Topshop selling t-shirts bearing her image,but her victory was a narrow one and other prospective claimants may not be so lucky. Background In 2012, Topshop began to sell in…
On 3 February 2015, His Honour Judge Hacon handed down judgment in relation to an application by the Claimant to amend his Particulars of Claim (Akhtar v Bhopal Productions (UK) Ltd & Ors [2015] EWHC 154 (IPEC), see here for the full judgment). What is interesting in this case…