Intellectual property law

In this part of our blog we follow the latest intellectual property disputes and report on any significant changes to intellectual property law.

Intellectual property, including copyright, patents, and trademarks, plays an important role in today’s technology market. There are numerous ongoing disputes between technological giants, and research and development companies, as they seek to protect their valuable intellectual property rights from being infringed by their competitors.

If you are interested in intellectual property law, make sure you heck our blog regularly, as we’ll update it regularly with all the relevant news.

If you have a query regarding intellectual property law, Contact Law can put you in touch with a local specialist solicitor. It’s a free service, so why not give us a call today?

Pirate Bay may be made unavailable for UK internet users

The future of the file-sharing website Pirate Bay is looking increasingly gloomy after Mr Justice Arnold, sitting at the high court, ruled that the site and its users are violating copyright laws. Legal representatives for the website argued that the site did not itself host any material and, as such, it worked in a similar [...]

Website-hosting university student faces extradition to the US

An English university student is facing extradition to the US after he hosted a site where users were linked to other websites with copyright-protected material. Richard O’Dwyer set up the site TVShack which, according to US authorities, hosted links to pirated films and television programmes. The university student’s legal representative, Ben Cooper, argued against extradition [...]

Australian court dismisses Apple’s infringement of patent allegations

A global dispute over patents is taking place between Samsung and Apple. The companies are involved in legal battles in several countries concerning similarities of some of the companies’ products. Yesterday, a Federal Court in Australia lifted an injunction imposed on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy product.

Samsung seeks to end tablet row with Apple

Samsung has offered to remove some of the features from its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in order to appease Apple and end the ongoing patent battle, in one jurisdiction at least. The two technology giants are currently embroiled in intellectual property disputes across the Globe, including the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, where the current [...]

Musicians celebrate extension of copyright by 20 years

Copyright, which protects original work from exploitation without the permission of the creator, has been extended from 50 years to 70 years by the EU’s ratification of a new copyright law. The law is referred to as ‘Cliff’s law’ after Sir Cliff Richard, who campaigned on behalf of artists from the 60s who were set [...]

Samsung forced to keep new tablet under wraps by Apple

Apple has successfully won a point against its competitor Samsung in the pair’s ongoing legal battle over alleged patent infringements in relation to tablet technology. A German court has granted Apple an injunction that prevents Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in Germany. This means the company cannot show their new tablet device at [...]

Copyright Wars

Film-raiders got a rude-awakening when BT was ordered to block access to film and TV pirate website Newzbin2 at a time when there are plans to relax the UK’s intellectual property laws. In what is heralded as a landmark test case for internet service providers (ISP), the High Court has ordered BT to block access [...]

Vince Cable to announce changes to law on ‘ripping’

The Business Secretary Vince Cable is expected to announce a significant change in to copyright law in an attempt to bring it up-to-date with technology. He is expected to announce that ‘ripping’ CDs and DVDs, or format shifting films and music to a more portable format, will no longer be illegal.

A company’s most valuable asset: their trademark

Intellectual property law relating to trademarks emerged approximately 200 years ago, when merchants came to realise that there was commercial value in obtaining exclusive rights over a product they had created or their company/product name. Since then trademarks have become an important factor within any company.  (More…)

Nokia v Apple

Nokia has emerged victorious in the 46 cases of patent infringement against the Apple Corporation. The result is a bi-lateral agreement in which the American giant will pay an undisclosed sum in patent fees and royalties over a given period to the Finnish company. (More…)