About IP Law
With the laws around Intellectual Property and Information Technology changing all the time, keeping pace is hard enough. But knowing the law isn’t enough. You need to know what those changes are going to mean for your clients. The big picture, the fine detail, the impact and the next steps.
Copyright
Practical information about copyright, moral rights, performers’ rights and rights in performances. Get precedent copyright assignments and licences here.
Trade marks
Practical information about trade marks, passing off, geographical indications and anti-counterfeiting. Get precedent trade mark assignments and licences here.
Patents
Practical information about patents and supplementary protection certificates. Get precedent patent assignments and licences here.
IP disputes
Get guidance on strategic and practical steps for dealing with IP disputes, including ways of trying to avoid them in the first place. Our case analysis highlights points from judgments so you can be confident at work.
Topics We Cover
Latest IP News
The News Media Association (NMA) has launched the ‘Make it Fair’ campaign to oppose proposed government changes to copyright law that could allow AI...
Law360, London: A European court ruled on 26 February 2025 that trade mark officials must take another look at a Russian tea brand's challenge to the...
This week’s edition of IP weekly highlights includes: a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP. These...
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched a survey to gather views on priorities for protecting designs in the UK. The survey targets...
The European Commission has started evaluating the EU legislation on plant variety rights, which protect breeders' intellectual property rights for...
Latest IP Practice Notes
UK Rome II—application and interpretationThis Practice Note is for use when determining applicable law in the courts of England and Wales respect of...
UK Rome I—application and interpretationThis Practice Note is for use when determining applicable law where the contract was entered into on or after...
IP—new starter design rights guideThis new starter guide provides an introduction to design rights. It focuses on highlighting the basic principles...
Designs tracker—UK 2023 [Archived]ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is no longer maintained. It contains closed legislative...
Copyright and databases—UK/EU comparisonBackgroundThis Practice Note provides a high-level summary of key themes of comparison between the UK and EU...
Latest IP Precedents
Letter of claim—parallel imports and trade mark infringement[Alleged infringer’s name and address][Date]Dear [insert organisation name],[UK trade mark...
Letter of claim—trade mark infringement[Alleged infringer’s name and address][Date]Dear [insert organisation name][UK trade mark registration number...
Trade mark filing sheetThe purpose of this Precedent trade mark filing sheet is to provide an efficient mechanism for a business to set out...
Trade mark search sheetThe purpose of this Precedent trade mark search sheet is to provide an efficient mechanism for a business to set out...
Intellectual property licence—pro-licenseeThis Agreement is made on [insert date]Parties1[insert name], a company incorporated in [England and Wales]...
Latest IP Q&As
Featured IP content
Introduction to passing off
Introduction to passing offUnlike many other countries, the UK has no unfair competition law. Brand owners seeking to prevent competitors from...
Copyright infringement—remedies
Copyright infringement—remediesThis Practice Note covers the remedies available for copyright infringement.The remedies available in cases of...
Intellectual property international treaties and conventions
Intellectual property international treaties and conventionsIP laws are almost always national in nature. However, there are many conventions and...
Introduction to revocation of patents
Introduction to revocation of patentsPatents may be revoked, that is, taken off the register of patents, if it is decided that they are invalid in...
Joint ownership of intellectual property rights
Joint ownership of intellectual property rightsWhen parties collaborate on creative projects or research and development, complex questions arise...
Exploiting intellectual property rights
Exploiting intellectual property rightsIP rights are only valuable if they make money for the business. Even if they are used in the business, a...
Third party intellectual property rights indemnity clause—pro-supplier
1 Intellectual property rights indemnity 1.1 The Supplier shall defend the Customer against any third party claim that...
Commercial use of fonts and typefaces
Commercial use of fonts and typefacesTypefaces are a key component of a brand’s identity, using a unique typeface helps a business to distinguish...
Sub-licensing intellectual property rights
Sub-licensing intellectual property rightsAn intellectual property (IP) owner may choose to license its IP to a third party. This can be an effective...
Copyright—authorship and ownership
Copyright—authorship and ownershipThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) defines the author of a work as the person who created it....
Patent term, renewal and restoration
Patent term, renewal and restorationThis Practice Note explains how long a patent lasts, how it must be maintained by renewal in order to last that...
Moral rights
Moral rightsThe nature of moral rightsThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) confers a number of personal rights on authors that are...
Civil and criminal remedies for intellectual property infringement
Civil and criminal remedies for intellectual property infringementThis Practice Note provides an overview of the civil and criminal remedies which can...
Defences and exceptions to trade mark infringement
Defences and exceptions to trade mark infringementThe registration of a trade mark gives the owner the exclusive right to prevent others from using...
Parallel imports
Parallel importsScopeThis Practice Note explains trade mark law on parallel trade. Parallel imports, or ‘grey market’ goods, are genuine goods that...
Trade mark assignment and licensing
Trade mark assignment and licensingTrade marks can be exploited in a number of ways. They might be directly exploited by a trade mark owner (ie by...
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringementThe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) gives the copyright owner exclusive rights in the UK to carry out...
IP rights and semiconductors
IP rights and semiconductorsBackground to semiconductorsA semiconductor is essentially any material which has electrical conductivity and can thus...
Associated legal terms
Folksong
A folksong is where a literary work and musical work is unpublished and unknown authorship.
Know-how
Know-how is information that can be protected under the law of confidence. It can be recorded in any form or held in the memory of an individual. Know-how is not strictly a form of property in its own right, although it is often treated as a form of intellectual property.
Performer's non-property rights
The performer's non-property rights are rights which belong to the performer which cannot usually be assigned or be transmitted.
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