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“The EUIPO has issued a Decision stating that all EUIPO deadlines falling due from 9 March 2020 to 30 April 2020 inclusive are extended until 1 May 2020 (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). We understand that this will not apply to Paris Convention cases filed with the EUIPO. We intend to send you individual emails on […]

The EPO has issued a courtesy advance notice stating that it expects to extend EPO deadlines falling due from 15 March to 16 April 2020 inclusive until 17 April 2020 (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). We understand that this will not apply to Paris Convention cases filed with the EPO, or possibly divisional deadlines, but will […]

Published on 19 March 2018, the legal text of the draft Withdrawal Agreement sets out the terms upon which UK and EU negotiators have reached a settlement, subject to minor technical legal revisions. In particular, the text provides some clarity on the extended protection of European Union trade mark registrations (EUTMs) (including International Registrations designating […]

The UK will formally leave the EU on 31 January 2020 but under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement agreed between the UK and the EU this will commence a transition period until at least 31 December 2020. There will be no legal effect of Brexit on statutory IP rights until the end of the […]

What are the benefits? When I talk to product or brand designers who haven’t concerned themselves much with Intellectual Property (IP) rights, be it manufacturers of consumer products, or designers themselves, they quite rightly want to know why it’s worth spending the money to get rights registered. Some designers consider IP purely a client problem, […]

The UK Supreme Court has handed down their judgement in Shanks v Unilever [2019] UKSC 45 (found here)  in which they considered the issue of employee compensation, and under what circumstances would an employee be entitled to further compensation for an invention they had invented as part of their normal duties. The decision of the […]