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Apple Apology – Text of Judgment available
As noted in earlier posts (here and here) the statement Apple posted to their website wasn’t exactly what the judges in the Court of Appeal had in mind. The full text of the judgment following Samsung’s complaint is now available here. It is well worth a read and almost relentless in its disapproval of Apple’s actions.
The current version of the Apple website links to the intended wording. Or you could try this.
Patent applicants in India: beware the section 8 ‘trap’
India has become an attractive and apparently low cost option for patent applicants with global interests, but recent Patent Appeal Board and Court decisions suggest that hard-won patents may be invalidated easily on technicality grounds if patent owners do not meet stringent disclosure obligations during the application procedure.
Patents County Court – a trailblazer for efficient UK court proceedings
The Patents County Court was set up under its most recent guise in late 2010 under the stewardship of Judge Birss as Deputy Judge with the aim of providing efficient Intellectual Property case trials as an alternative to costly and timely High Court trials. The key provisions of the PCC are that costs are on a fixed scale capped at £50 000, damages which the court can award is limited to £500 000 and each trial is aimed to be concluded within 2 days.
The ever-innovative HH Judge Colin Birss QC has recently issued a second non-binding preliminary opinion during a trade mark case that was due to be heard at the UK Patents County Court (PCC). A non-binding opinion is an opinion of the residing judge, generally during the case management conference stage of proceedings (before trial) as to the likely outcome of the case, were the case to be tried at the PCC.
Guy Fawkes’ Patent Bombshell
In England the 5th November commemorates the anniversary of the foiling of the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when a shady group of conspirators came ever so close to assassinating King James I of England along with much of Parliament. As the man caught red handed in the act of stacking the gunpowder under the House of Lords in Westminster, Guy Fawkes’ effigy is burned every year on bonfires across the country for various reasons, many of which are now forgotten to firework toting revellers. Perhaps one of the lesser appreciated reasons to be thankful for the failure of the plot is that less than twenty years later that same Parliament went on to draft the Statute of Monopolies which formed the basis of patent laws for the UK, the European Patent Convention, as well as for many countries with historical links to Britain’s Imperial past including the USA, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, New Zealand and much of the Commonwealth.
These aren’t just any sausages, these are Newmarket sausages
Sausages made in Newmarket, Suffolk have been awarded the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status from the European Commission. The Suffolk sausages join the ranks of protected foods such as Stilton blue cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies.
The PGI status means that only products actually originating in the specific town, region or country in question may be identified as such (for example, only sausages produced in the town of Newmarket and a very specific surrounding region may be named ‘Newmarket sausages’). Generally, the products in question have very specific flavours or characteristics and so strict rules also govern the manufacture of products marketed under the PGI status. For example, Newmarket sausages must be made from prime cuts of pork from the whole carcass (no offal) and must have a minimum meat content of 70%.
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:
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