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Introduction

This five hour in-person course will consider recent case law and practice in several IP practice areas including copyright, registered trademarks, designs and passing off.

The course is aimed at both solicitors and trademark attorneys and delegates should have a good general knowledge of intellectual property.

Patent law and practice will not be discussed.

What You Will Learn

This in-person course will cover the following:

• The present extent of the major UK Intellectual Property Office (‘IPO’) ‘One IPO Transformation’ programme, and how practice has and will change, especially with respect to trade mark practice, procedure and costs
• The important and maybe unexpected July 2023 changes to the IPEC Small Claims Track
• IP litigation and failure to mediate in a bona fide manner
• Liability of directors for infringing acts of their companies following the 2024 Supreme Court decision in Lifestyle Equities CV v Ahmed. Does the decision extend beyond directors? When might accounts of profits be ordered?
• AI and IP - Is there really still a need for a human author, designer or person who makes the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work?
• AI and infringement - the latest on UK and US cases delving into whether copyright might have been infringed in works that have been “trained” by AI engines
• Copyright in fictional characters. Trade marks for fictional character?
• Hosting infringing material on the web, including uploads to YouTube. Under what circumstances might the web hoster now be liable? The latest CJEU case law
• To what extent might UK courts follow or continue to be influenced by post-exit-day CJEU IP case law?
• The IPO’s trademark ‘pre-apply’ service - when might it be wise for even an experienced practitioner to consider using it?
• Assessing similarity between marks
• Bad faith trademark registrations: The IPO’s 2023 practice change; Evergreening; Possible parody defences - if so, when might they apply?
• The still little-known but major enlargement to the scope of protection for well-known marks (“WKM”) as registered marks, even if not registered in the UK
• An account of the2024 Lidl v Tesco Clubcard case in the Court of Appeal, involving trade mark, passing off and copyright issues. An important but difficult case “at the outer boundaries of trade mark protection and passing off” ?
• Passing off: Interim relief, reverting to a strong prima facie case?
• Registered Designs and the re-stated need for objectivity in assessing designs
• Registered designs: Construing and interpretating line drawings
• Supplementary Unregistered Design (‘SUD’) - what it is and the differences with Community Unregistered Design