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Recent cases

Plentyoffish Media Inc v. Plenty More LLP [2012] RPC 511 October 2011Appeal to the High Court in invalidation proceedings under s 47 of the Trade Marks Act 1994. The Opponent asserted goodwill based upon visitors to a website situation abroad. The issue was whether any UK goodwill had been generated which could be relied upon as an earlier mark. Appeal dismissed and decision of the hearing […]
K-2 Corporation v K2 Performance Systems (Uk) Ltd (IPO) (See O-341-11) (5th October 2011)5 October 2011Trade Mark Registry Opposition. K2 Performance Systems applied for a trade mark for the stylised word and device mark ‘planet K2’ in relation to management consultancy. The Application was opposed by K2 corporation, owner of the work mark ‘K2’ for business management services. It was held that although the services in issue were identical the […]
FAPL v QC Leisure/Murphy v Media Protection Services Joined Cases C-403/08 & C-429/084 October 2011In this landmark case on cross border broadcasting which was decided by the ECJ Grand Chamber, James Mellor QC and Charlotte May acted for the claimants in the civil case and for the prosecutor MPS in the criminal case. Martin Howe QC acted for the defendants in the civil case and for Mrs Murphy in […]
Generics (UK) Ltd (trading as Mylan) v Novartis AG30 September 2011Daniel Alexander QC and Henry Ward acted for Generics (UK) Limited in a claim for revocation of an SPC (and associated patent) in relation to the active ingredient of the Alzheimer’s drug rivastigmine. The patent was to the enantiomer of a previously disclosed compound, RA7. Novartis alleged that the skilled man would have perceived there […]
International Arbitration28 July 2011John Baldwin QC and Iona Berkeley have just finished an international arbitration in Singapore. The dispute concerned the interpretation of a trade mark coexistence agreement entered into in order to resolve several local disputes in SE Asia. The issue was the extent to which the parties’ agreement about the likelihood of confusion in specific territories […]
Motion Picture Association v BT (Newzbin 2)28 July 2011Adrian Speck appeared with Richard Spearman QC for the members of the Motion Picture Association at a hearing before Mr Justice Arnold in which the MPA successfully obtained a novel order against BT under s. 97A CDPA. The order prevents BT’s customers from visiting the Newzbin webpage, which makes available pirate versions of films, TV […]
LG v Sony Computer Entertainment27 July 2011Daniel Alexander QC and Andrew Lykiardopoulos acted for Sony in successfully defending this application for summary judgment in this patent dispute concerning Sony’s PlayStation 3 players. LG applied for summary judgment on whether a piece of prior art could be relied upon as being “made available to the public” in circumstances where to obtain it […]
ITV Broadcasting v TVCatchup Ltd [2011] EWHC 1874 (Pat)18 July 2011In a copyright action relating to internet streaming, James Mellor QC and Jessie Bowhill acted for the claimant broadcasters (ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) in a trial against TVCatchup Ltd, represented by Martin Howe QC and James Whyte. Charlotte May appeared for the Secretary of State. The defendant operated a service that (despite its […]
The Estate of Adrian Jacobs v Bloomsbury Publishing and JK Rowling14 July 2011John Baldwin QC and Adrian Speck acted for J K Rowling in her successful attempt to have dismissed proceedings brought against her alleging that the Harry Potter books and, in particular Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, were infringements of copyright. Miss Rowling alleged that the claim against her was absolutely hopeless but last […]
Sanofi-Aventis (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd v Fresenius Kabi (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd5 July 2011In this case in the High Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur, Martin Howe QC appeared as an expert witness for the plaintiffs and George Hamer as expert witness for the defendants on patent law and in particular on the law relevant to purposive construction of patent claims.