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September 10, 2008
Joint copyright can be a dangerous trap for businesses. Disputes over joint copyright issues are often expensive, fact intensive and it is difficult to prove ownership. Several cases highlight problems that can surface when joint ...
September 19, 2008
Ubuntu is a well known free, open source based Linux based operating system. Their business model is to provide software free of charge but to make money by giving support instead. Recently there have been a large number of varian...
November 1, 2008
Elvis Presley [1997] R.P.C. 543 and Linkin Park [2006] E.T.M.R. 74 are examples of cases which have highlighted the problems that can arise when famous people or groups try to protect their name through trademark law, in order to ex...
November 9, 2008
When finding out his bottle was a possible infringement of the Westmalle Belgian ringed bottle (trademark rights in which had been assigned to the New Belgium Company in Colorado) Mr Hindy, the owner of the Brooklyn Brewery was happ...
November 10, 2008
The Company Names Adjudication System was launched in October 2008 under section 69 of the Companies Act 2006. It aims to reduce the number of opportunistic company name squatters who incorporate companies with a view to selling th...
December 6, 2008
It is interesting to hear Marks and Spencer was sued by Interflora for using Interflora’s brand in their Google advertising.
The case was ultimately resolved in Interflora's favour in 2014, with the High Court finding that M&S's ke...
January 20, 2009
Unless you just have a lifestyle business you need to understand intellectual property rights. In fact even if you have a lifestyle business, you still need to know enough about intellectual property rights so as to avoid trouble by...
January 22, 2009
China is often cited as a high risk country for organisations to effectively enforce their intellectual property rights. There are however, a growing number of success stories where brand owners have successfully enforced their righ...
February 11, 2009
IP lawyers always become excited when they find an example of a trade mark in danger of becoming generic. The case in point is the trade mark for NETBOOK, pointed out in this blog post. NETBOOK was registered as a trade mark in t...
February 12, 2009
It is amazing how naïve otherwise sensible business people can be when it comes to commissioning a designer to develop a website for them. Whether it is a lack of knowledge or simple forgetfulness many businesses overlook formalit...
March 6, 2009
A trademark conveys the image, personality and the origin of the products to a customer. Through this information, the consumer will make an economic decision to purchase. Thus, trademarks are crucial in developing a company’s strategy...
March 17, 2009
One of the more difficult aspects of trademark protection to explain to clients is that a trademark is only territorial in nature and not in fact international. This means that each trademark that is registered in each additional coun...
