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Happy Halloween – the story behind your power plugs….
It’s Halloween and we have a grim tale for you about the battle to supply electricity to your homes…..
Today we have the smartphone patent wars but 130 years ago it was the Current Wars – AC versus DC, Tesla versus Edison. There could be only one winner and, unfortunately for an elephant named Topsy, Edison was willing to play dirty.
Trade Marks and Companies House
In our day jobs we often meet prospective new clients who have registered the name of their new start up company at Companies House and have then commenced a programme of advertising to jump start their business. Although checking, via Companies House, that your company name has not already been taken is obviously important it should be borne in mind that availability of a name at Companies House does not necessarily mean you are free to use that name in the course of business. Neither does registration of a company name at Companies House provide the right to prevent others from trading under the same name.
Prior to adopting a new name, it is therefore prudent to speak to a trade mark attorney to ensure that the name is free for adoption and, further, to ensure that you put in place the best form of protection to enable you to prevent others from using a similar name in future.
Further information can be found here.
Apple “Apology”
As noted in many recent news stories, Apple has now included a link on their UK website to a page explaining the outcome of their recent Court of Appeal decision in the UK. The link on their front page has been located in such a way as to provide a sort of “Where’s Wally?” experience when you try and find it.
Clicking on the link takes you to a page completely devoid of Apple branding. There are six paragraphs of text on this page, paragraphs 1 and 5 being the text specified by the judge in the UK court case. Paragraphs, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have been added by Apple. When I look at the page, I can’t help seeing it like this:
Doctor Who (IP – Hit or Miss?)
I say old chap. You haven’t seen my sonic screwdriver, have you?
Does The Doctor know his IP from his elbow?
Incidentally, just in case you’re wondering, there is an (admittedly tenuous) intellectual property (IP) connection to this story!
In the episode in question, Silence in the Library (trailer below), the Doctor and Donna are summoned to a planet sized library, The Library, via a message received on the Doctor’s psychic paper where they encounter a team of explorers led by Professor Song and funded by Mr Lux. The Doctor and Donna are encouraged to sign non-disclosure agreements upon encountering the team in order to ensure that their “individual experiences inside the Library are the intellectual property of the Felman Lux Corporation.”
It turns out that The Library has been deserted for 100 years following some kind of incident in which all the occupants of the Library disappeared. When things predictably start to go south the Doctor gets annoyed with Lux and declares “Mr Lux, right now, you’re in more danger than you’ve ever been in your whole life. And you’re protecting a patent?”
Just what does the Doctor mean by his reference to “protecting a patent”? Does it make sense from an IP context? Is it an IP hit or miss? And, am I over-thinking my Saturday night telly?
IP Hit or Miss?
Ever been watching a film or something on TV and noticed that the intellectual property (IP) reference that just cropped up in the script is wrong? No? Well, you probably manage to get out more than me.
To this author at least (patent attorney, tech nerd and SF geek) references to patents, trade marks and the like seem to pop up quite frequently in the entertainment media.
IP Hit or Miss? is an occasional series of articles that takes a light-hearted look at IP as it appears in the media (films, TV, news reports etc) as an excuse to talk about different IP topics. A vague rating of “IP hit or miss?” may also be given depending on how well the particular IP concept has been incorporated into the media in question.
Want to suggest a film, TV show or other reference that we can take a look at? Drop us an email or leave a comment below.
It’s a question of design
Is this an iPad I see before me?
In the recently decided Samsung versus Apple case in the UK Court of Appeal, the court confirmed that Samsung did not infringe Apple’s registered Community Design No. 000181607-0001.
At paragraph 54 of the decision, Sir Robin Jacob stated: “If the registered design has a scope as wide as Apple contends it would foreclose much of the market for tablet computers. Alterations in thickness, curvature of the sides, embellishment and so on would not escape its grasp. Legitimate competition by different designs would be stifled”.
In light of the above and the decision as a whole it would appear the UK courts are going to give design registrations a fairly narrow scope.
Remember, remember, it’s time for Movember
UPDATED with new MoBros
Well the clocks will soon be going back and the nights will begin to get longer. Christmas is just around the corner but first there’s the small matter of Movember.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Movember is an opportunity for men around the world to look like plonkers while raising money for charity. Essentially, we start clean shaven on 1 November and then attempt to grow a moustache across the course of the month, hopefully raising some money along the way. The money raised is in support of men’s health issues, particularly testicular cancer and prostate cancer. The Movember movement started in Australia in 2003 and there are now formal campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, South Africa, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Last year nearly £80 million was raised for these worthy charities.
Small Claims Track in PCC
On 1 October 2012 the Patents County Court (PCC) introduced a small claims track to run beside the PCC multi-track.
The small claims track will be suitable for claims up to a value of £5,000 and is expected to be of benefit to individuals and SMEs who previously may not have wanted to start claims in the PCC.
Cases in the PCC small claims track will be handled more informally than in the PCC multi-track. Suitable cases relating to trade marks or passing off, copyright and unregistered design right may be brought in the PCC small claims track. However, claims concerned with patents, registered designs (including Community registered designs) and plant varieties may not be brought in the PCC small claims track.
If you’d like to know more, speak to your friendly neighbourhood trade mark attorney
IPcopy 