Services
Our services are centred around intellectual property that can be registered. We protect innovation, design, and branding across all sectors of industry, and at all stages in the supply chain.
For each IP right we offer services covering strategic advice, pre-registration searches, registrations and renewals, oppositions and dispute resolution. We handle work throughout the world, working with local colleagues in over 100 countries.
Services
Sectors
Our attorneys specialise in one or more sectors of industry, which enables them to provide quality advice with a commercial focus.
Our patent specialists have detailed understanding of the background technology, which ensures that your patent applications are prepared with the correct scope, reducing the likelihood of challenges from third parties and objections from the patent office.
They also advise whether other forms of protection would be more appropriate. Our brand specialists work with brand managers for leading brands and their advice is commercially focussed making sure that you get the best value from your budget.
Sectors
The EPO has recently extended the pilot program for oral proceedings by videoconference (VICO) before opposition divisions until 31 December 2022. This means that opposition oral proceedings will continue to be held by VICO until the end of this year, unless there are serious reasons not to.
Following the oral proceedings that took place two weeks’ ago, the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal has today (16 July 2021) given its answer to the referred question in case G1/21 – whether oral proceedings can be held by video conference without the consent of the parties.
Products and processes in the chemistry and material science fields are often defined using parameters. Sometimes a parametric definition is the only way in which to define the property of a substance or in some cases the substance itself. For example, a new crystalline form of a compound is often defined with reference to peak values from an x-ray diffraction spectra. The viscosity of a liquid reactant may be critical to the performance of an industrial synthesis process.
Oral proceedings in case G1/21 took place today (2 July 2021) for the second time in case, after proceedings were adjourned at the first oral proceedings that took place last month. While we don’t know what the outcome of the oral proceedings will be, the proceedings were at least properly concluded and we can expect the written decision in due course.
When Nike applied to register the word mark FOOTWARE as a UK trade mark, Puma opposed the application. The issue was recently resolved in the High Court.
Smiley Miley, Inc. (‘SMI’), the company owned by American singer Miley Cyrus, has won a six year legal battle to register the trade mark MILEY CYRUS in the EU. The General Court of the European Union (‘the GC’) issued its decisions on 16 June 2021, overturning the refusal of this trade mark application by the EU Intellectual Property Office (‘the EUIPO’).
The General Court of the European Union (‘the GC’) has issued its hotly anticipated decision in Hasbro Inc. v European Union Intellectual Property Office (‘EUIPO’). This case centres on whether one or more EU trade mark (‘EUTM’) registrations owned by Hasbro Inc. (‘Hasbro’) for the trade mark MONOPOLY are invalid because Hasbro’s intentions, when re-filing a mark that was already protected by an EUTM covering the same goods/services, was to undermine the requirement to prove use of an EUTM.
In their recent decision (T1839/18), the boards of appeal re-affirmed the legality of straw man oppositions. Although this in itself is not news, we felt it offered a good opportunity to look again at the many advantages of anonymously opposing a European patent.