25th May 2023
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Vanessa King to the newly-created role of IP Operations Director. She arrives with over 20 years of IP experience that has taken her from Sydney to London, delivering high quality service to her firms’ clients.
1st Mar 2022
The EPO Board of Appeal in cases T1513/17 and T2719/19 (both “Prolongation of survival of an allograft/Alexion”) has referred questions concerning priority entitlement for joint applicants to the Enlarged Board of Appeal, the EPO’s highest authority on questions of law.
14th Jun 2021
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.
11th Jun 2021
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.
7th May 2021
Brazilian IP Law previously provided that the term of a patent is the longest of 20 years from filing date or 10 years from date of grant. This ensures a minimum term of ten years from the grant date; it can be thought of, effectively, as an automatic “Patent Term Adjustment” to account for delays in prosecution by the Brazilian Intellectual Property Office.