About IP Law
With the laws around Intellectual Property and Information Technology changing all the time, keeping pace is hard enough. But knowing the law isn鈥檛 enough. You need to know what those changes are going to mean for your clients. The big picture, the fine detail, the impact and the next steps.
Copyright
Practical information about copyright, moral rights, performers鈥 rights and rights in performances. Get precedent copyright assignments and licences here.
Trade marks
Practical information about trade marks, passing off, geographical indications and anti-counterfeiting. Get precedent trade mark assignments and licences here.
Patents
Practical information about patents and supplementary protection certificates. Get precedent patent assignments and licences here.
IP disputes
Get guidance on strategic and practical steps for dealing with IP disputes, including ways of trying to avoid them in the first place. Our case analysis highlights points from judgments so you can be confident at work.
Latest IP News
The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Lifestyle Equities appeal, holding that the defendant company directors, the Ahmeds could not be liable either...
The European Commission services has opened a targeted consultation seeking information from relevant stakeholders regarding the application and...
IP analysis: The Patents Court granted Bayer an interim injunction restraining sales of generic once-daily rivaroxaban pending the possibility of a...
Law360: A Chilean plant-based food manufacturer has failed to register the trade mark 'Not Milk', after a European court ruled that it could not be...
Law360: Third-party video game cheating software should not infringe game creators' copyright in the EU if it only manipulates a gamer's input rather...
Latest IP Practice Notes
UK Rome I鈥攁pplication and interpretationThis Practice Note is for use when determining applicable law where the contract was entered into on or after...
Sunsetting retained EU law鈥攅ssentialsRetained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL(RR)A...
US鈥擟ommunications Decency Act Section 230 immunityThis Practice Note was originally written for Lexis Practice Advisor®, in the US.This Practice Note...
US鈥攑atent fundamentals鈥攃ourts and tribunalsThis Practice Note was originally written for Lexis Practice Advisor®, in the US.This Practice Note answers...
US鈥攖rademark fundamentalsThis Practice Note was originally written for Lexis Practice Advisor®, in the US.This Practice Note provides an overview of...
Latest IP Precedents
Consultancy agreement鈥攊ndividual and company鈥攑ro-consultantThis Agreement is made on [insert date]Parties1[Name of Company], a company incorporated in...
Side letter to consultancy agreement鈥攃ompany and company鈥攑ro-client[To be typed on letterhead of individual][Insert name of consultancy...
Consultancy agreement鈥攃ompany and company鈥攑ro-consultancyThis Agreement is made on [insert date]Parties1[Name of Company], a company incorporated in...
Consultancy agreement鈥攃ompany and company鈥攑ro-clientThis Agreement is made on [date]Parties1[Name of Company], a company incorporated in England with...
Consultancy agreement鈥攃ompany and individual鈥攑ro-clientThis Agreement is made on [insert date]Parties1[Name of Company], a company incorporated in...
Latest IP Q&As
Featured IP content
Introduction to passing off
Introduction to passing offUnlike many other countries, the UK has no unfair competition law. Brand owners seeking to prevent competitors from...
Copyright infringement鈥攔emedies
Copyright infringement鈥攔emediesThis Practice Note covers the remedies available for copyright infringement.The remedies available in cases of...
Intellectual property international treaties and conventions
Intellectual property international treaties and conventionsIP laws are almost always national in nature. However, there are many conventions and...
Introduction to revocation of patents
Introduction to revocation of patentsPatents may be revoked, that is, taken off the register of patents, if it is decided that they are invalid in...
Joint ownership of intellectual property rights
Joint ownership of intellectual property rightsWhen parties collaborate on creative projects or research and development, complex questions arise...
Exploiting intellectual property rights
Exploiting intellectual property rightsIP rights are only valuable if they make money for the business. Even if they are used in the business, a...
Third party intellectual property rights indemnity clause鈥攑ro-supplier
1 Intellectual property rights indemnity 1.1 The Supplier shall defend the Customer against any third party claim that...
Commercial use of fonts and typefaces
Commercial use of fonts and typefacesTypefaces are a key component of a brand鈥檚 identity, using a unique typeface helps a business to distinguish...
Sub-licensing intellectual property rights
Sub-licensing intellectual property rightsAn intellectual property (IP) owner may choose to license its IP to a third party. This can be an effective...
Copyright鈥攁uthorship and ownership
Copyright鈥攁uthorship and ownershipThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) defines the author of a work as the person who created it....
Patent term, renewal and restoration
Patent term, renewal and restorationThis Practice Note explains how long a patent lasts, how it must be maintained by renewal in order to last that...
Moral rights
Moral rightsThe nature of moral rightsThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) confers a number of personal rights on authors that are...
Civil and criminal remedies for intellectual property infringement
Civil and criminal remedies for intellectual property infringementThis Practice Note provides an overview of the civil and criminal remedies which can...
Defences and exceptions to trade mark infringement
Defences and exceptions to trade mark infringementThe registration of a trade mark gives the owner the exclusive right to prevent others from using...
Parallel imports
Parallel importsScopeThis Practice Note explains trade mark law on parallel trade. Parallel imports, or 鈥榞rey market鈥 goods, are genuine goods that...
Trade mark assignment and licensing
Trade mark assignment and licensingTrade marks can be exploited in a number of ways. They might be directly exploited by a trade mark owner (ie by...
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringementThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) gives the copyright owner exclusive rights in the UK to carry out...
IP rights and semiconductors
IP rights and semiconductorsBackground to semiconductorsA semiconductor is essentially any material which has electrical conductivity and can thus...
Associated legal terms
Originality
A literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work is only protected as a copyright work to the extent that it is original work.
Publication right
This is a property right in relation to an unpublished work which is first published after the expiry of copyright protection which is equivalent to copyright.
Small and Micro business
(1) This section applies where any subordinate legislation made by a Minister of the Crown (the 鈥渦nderlying provision鈥)鈥 (a) uses the term 鈥渟mall business鈥 or 鈥渕icro business鈥, and (b) defines that term by reference to this section. (2) In the underlying provision 鈥渟mall business鈥 means an undertaking other than a micro business (see subsection (3)) which meets the following conditions (鈥渢he small business size conditions鈥)鈥 (a) it has a headcount of staff of less than 50, and (b) it has鈥 (i) a turnover, or (ii) a balance sheet total, of an amount less than or equal to the small business threshold. (3) In the underlying provision 鈥渕icro business鈥 means an undertaking which meets the following conditions (鈥渢he micro business size conditions鈥)鈥 (a) it has a headcount of staff of less than 10, and (b) it has鈥 (i) a turnover, or (ii) a balance sheet total, of an amount less than or equal to the micro business threshold. (4) The Secretary of State may by regulations (referred to as 鈥渢he small and micro business regulations鈥) make further provision about the meanings of 鈥渟mall business鈥 and 鈥渕icro business鈥. (5) This section and the small and micro business regulations are to be read subject to any modifications made by the underlying provision in any particular case.
CONTACT US
