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
Law360, London: The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has now doubled down on its authority to hear claims involving UK patents, a move that is likely to...
Law360, London: The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has now doubled down on its authority to hear claims involving UK patents, a move that is likely to...
Private Client analysis: This is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court on the liability of trustees and other fiduciaries to account for...
Life Sciences analysis: The UK Court of Appeal (CoA) handed down its decision in the much-awaited Merck Serono v Comptroller-General of Patents case...
Law360: Grammy-winning singer Dua Lipa's chart-topping song 'Levitating' did not infringe a 1979 disco song, a New York federal judge ruled on 27...
Latest IP Practice Notes
IP strategy for online retailIP and online retailEstablishing an online presence (either instead of or in addition to trading through physical stores)...
DeedsUnder English law, legally binding agreements can be made orally, in writing or by deed.This Practice Notice considers the circumstances in which...
Brexit timelineOn 23 June 2016, the UK held a referendum on its membership of the EU, with a majority voting in favour of the UK leaving the EU. On 29...
Brexit legislation trackerThis Practice Note tracks the progress of UK legislation introduced as part of the legislative project associated with the...
Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements—scopeThis Practice Note considers the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements which applies to...
Latest IP Precedents
Assignment of intellectual property rights (asset purchase) (short form)This Agreement is made on [insert date] (the Commencement Date) between the...
Assignment of intellectual property rights (asset purchase) (long form)This Agreement is made on [insert date] (Commencement Date) between the...
Draft Settlement agreement—for settling disputes post-commencement of proceedingsThis Agreement is made the day of 20[insert year]Parties:1[insert...
Affidavit in support of an application for a search orderSTOP PRESS: On 6 April 2025, amendments to Part 25 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR 25) will...
Draft Settlement agreement—pre-action settlementThis Agreement is made the day of 20[insert year]Parties:1[insert name of party], a company registered...
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
Inventive step
An invention must involve an inventive step to be patentable.
Priority date of patent
The priority date is the date upon which the novelty and inventive step of a patent is judged.
Restoration of patent
A patent is lapsed where the renewal fees have not been paid. It is possible to restore a patent after it has lapsed provided the application to restore is made in time.
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