News

The Netherlands recently became the eleventh country to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement. This marks a key point in the implementation of the UPC, as now only the mandatory ratification by Germany and the UK is necessary to bring the UPC Agreement into force. Prior to the recent EU Referendum, the UK was expected […]

From 1 October 2016 the UK IPO fee structure for registering designs in the UK will change. For many years applicants have had the option of filing one or several designs within a single application but the cost of filing lots of designs to protect various aspects of a product has been prohibitive for many, […]

Withers & Rogers former Chairman Karl Barnfather was delighted to moderate the opening panel session, on the Implications of Brexit and the UPC, to the MIP European Patent Reform Forum in Munich on Tuesday 6 September 2016.   On the panel was Margot Fröhlinger of the European Patent Office and Professor Tilmann of the University of […]

T-518/13 Future Enterprises v EUIPO Can ownership of a family of trade marks help to prove infringement? According to the EU’s General Court, the answer is yes. In this case, McDonald’s were able to invalidate a third party’s registration for MACCOFFEE. The Court held that where a party owned a set of earlier registrations, all […]

The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Cartier International and Others vs BSkyB and Others [2016] EWCA Civ 658 and has upheld the High Court’s decision. Our earlier report of the High Court decision can be found here. High Court Summary The Claimants (Cartier, Mont Blanc and Richemont) own trade mark registrations for […]

The people of the UK have voted to leave the European Union (EU). The referendum of 23 June 2016 concerning the UK’s membership of the EU has resulted in 52% of voters opting for the UK to leave the economic and political union established under the EU. From an Intellectual Property user’s perspective nothing will […]