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Intellectual Property
UK Ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement
Unified Patent Court – Key Step Forward What’s just happened? The UK government yesterday announced its ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement – the UPC Agreement for short. Read the report of the announcement here. What happens next? The UPC Agreement requires ratification by UK, Germany and France. Until that happens, it can’t come into […]
Announcement: Brexit – No bearing on European Patent Convention (EPC)
It ought to be “no news” rather than News by now. But it’s good to see a Brexit announcement from an official horses mouth. The key takeaways from this announcement (and previous information from various sources) are: A European patent application, filed before or after Brexit, can contain a designation of the UK A PCT […]
EPC Patent Costs – Lifetime Budget Tool
This new EPC patent costs tool is designed for use by US patent attorney and patent agent principals. It looks to be a first of its type in the EPC patent procurement arena. Key features of our EPC patent costs budget tool We designed the tool to generate an indicative lifetime budget that you can use […]
Painless, self-administered, dissolving – Microneedle Patches
Here’s something in an area where we’ve worked on IP – microneedle patches. There’s been a lot of news flow on this technology but this piece is worth singling out as it’s a report on Phase I trials. Virtually painless, capable of self-administration and the microneedles themselves dissolve whilst still penetrating the skin – fascinating, […]
Of course Google (Alphabet) can hold on to its trade mark GOOGLE
Trade mark rights can be incredibly valuable. But those rights need to be looked after. The owner has to use the trade mark, and do so properly. In most places, the legal rights have to be renewed every so often. And if a trade mark gets taken into the language as a descriptor, the owner may lose […]
So, how significant is it that patents have been applied for?
As this piece says, the idea of a contact lens with a built-in camera is pretty cool technology. And applying for patent protection is clear evidence of early forward planning for the possibility it’ll be a commercial proposition – applying after the cat’s out of the bag is legally too late in most places. But cool and applying for patents […]
iPhone Trade Mark Rights in China – Nobody can get it 100%
This dispute demonstrates well how, in a global market, phasing of trade mark protection programmes challenges even big companies. Chinese law grants trade mark rights to the first-applying applicant covering the relevant products, except if a later applicant’s trade mark is well-known in China even earlier. Here, that put Xintong Tiandi ahead, making Apple rely […]
Promising new approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease
Very neat piece of science reporting on the use in a worm model of the small molecule anti-cancer drug bexarotene for precision intervention early in the peptide self-assembly process normally leading to beta amyloid fibrils and Alzheimer’s disease. See the linked Science Advances paper and the possibility of broader application of this group’s findings to […]
Trade Mark Battle of the Chocolate Giants
The latest in long-running battle of the chocolate giants. The result can’t be a surprise. The Kit-Kat bar shape is distinctive but the question is what it communicates on its own to consumers. It’s possible to distinguish from the different outcomes in Toblerone and Coca-Cola (bottle). Nestle had quite separate “design rights” for the shape […]