23rd Oct 2019
Brewing giant Carlsberg recently unveiled two prototypes for a “paper beer bottle”, as part of the firm’s Together Towards Zero environmental initiative. Carlsberg has been working on this project since 2015, in collaboration with Danish innovation company ecoXpac, packaging company BillerudKorsnäs, and the Danish Technological Institute. This collaboration has now led to the formation of […]
29th Aug 2018
Packaging delivers to consumers powerful visual messages by which products are made immediately recognisable. As we walk down a supermarket aisle, browse through the pages of a magazine or check out a website we are bombarded with visual cue after visual cue. Our brains respond to these by making instant associations between familiar combinations of […]
7th Mar 2022
To celebrate International Women’s Day I wanted to tell the curious, lesser-known story of one-time inventor and patentee, Carmela Vitale. Chances are you have never heard of her, but I am almost certain you have benefited from her ground-breaking invention. A Slice of History Carmela was born in 1937. By the early 1980’s she was […]
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21st Jul 2021
Reddie & Grose LLP recently participated in London Climate Action Week, delivering a presentation entitled “Innovations for a Sustainable Lifestyle”. Rather than focussing on large-scale global or societal technological fixes, we very much wanted to highlight the changes that individuals could make in their own lives to be better ancestors to future generations. The presentation […]
13th Nov 2020
Plastic is great. It’s cheap, strong, lightweight, durable, waterproof, doesn’t break down easily… the list goes on. Its diverse range of properties lends itself to many applications. However, the exceptional durability of plastic is something of a double edged sword. In order to meet the high demand for plastic we produce over 300 million tonnes […]
29th Nov 2019
Registered Community designs (RCDs) and registered UK designs are used to protect the design of the shape and appearance of the whole or part of a new product. This article looks at a practical, real-life example of how a company has used registered designs to protect the design of a new product. Apple is known […]
31st May 2019
The UK’s Environment Secretary Michael Gove has recently confirmed a ban on plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic stemmed cotton buds which will come into force in England next year. But, what are the alternatives to plastic? There’s no denying that plastic plays an important role in the modern world. Since the invention of […]
7th Feb 2019
On 11 January 2019 McDonald’s lost their “BIG MAC” EU trade mark registration. The mark had been registered in three classes, covering food, non-alcoholic beverages and restaurant services, since 1998. The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) Cancellation Division revoked the registration after deciding that, on looking at the evidence, the global fast-food franchise had not […]
20th Dec 2018
In the wake of the UK Supreme Court decision in Warner-Lambert v Actavis (post here), second medical use claims have received considerable attention from the IP commentariat. We take a look at yet another controversy associated with the claim form: the nature of the “medical products” to which they can be applied. Second medical use claims […]
23rd Apr 2018
Scientists genetically modify enzyme capable of breaking down plastic This week, scientists announced that one of the world’s most vexing problems is a step closer to being solved. For better or worse, man-made plastics have become ubiquitous thanks to their durable and lightweight nature and relative cheapness to produce. However disposing of plastic in an […]
16th Mar 2018
Patents exist for inventions that solve real world problems, and the world is currently facing one of its biggest ever problems; plastic, and the ever increasing demand for its use in packaging our everyday items. In many ways, plastic is a wonderful thing. It’s an amazingly cheap, strong, lightweight, and versatile material, which significantly contributes […]
18th May 2017
…is the likely response from Nestlé to the Court of Appeal following the latest ruling to reject trade mark protection of the shape of the famous four-fingered chocolate bar in the UK. The decision was handed down on 17 May 2017. This is an appeal from the judgment of Arnold J given on 20 January […]