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  • Can we remove “limited” from the end of our company name?

    30 July 2018

    In certain circumstances a private limited company can apply to Companies House to be registered with a name that does not have “limited” (or the Welsh equivalent) at the end. This article summarises the circumstances of this exemption.

  • Brands and IP newsnotes - issue 6

    12 October 2017

    Welcome to the 6th edition of our Brands & IP newsnotes put together to bring you the latest, and most interesting legal developments affecting intellectual property law. In this issue we cover; battlegrounds on Amazon listings, whether prestigious brands can prevent their resellers from selling online, the EU's position paper on IP rights, an quick guide on rights for designs, and trade mark infringements.

  • Brands and IP newsnotes - issue 5

    27 June 2017

    Welcome to the 5th edition of our Brands & IP newsnotes put together to bring you the latest, and most interesting legal developments affecting intellectual property law. In this issue we cover; the potential pitfalls of social media, design by artificial intelligence, interesting trade mark applications and cases, an update on the UPC, and the importance of protecting trade secrets.

  • Give me a break…KitKat latest developments (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    Last month the Court of Appeal gave us the latest decision in the long running battle between Nestle and Cadbury. Interestingly, whilst agreeing that the well-known four- fingered chocolate snack should not be registered as a 3D trade mark, all three Lord Justices chose to give their own judgment. And for Nestle, this one might just take the biscuit.

  • Get me a #covfefe (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    In case you missed it, the 45th President of the United States recently took his habit of late night tweeting to a new low. Presumably meaning to rail against the ‘mainstream media’ coverage, Trump instead complained of “negative press covfefe” and trailed off mid-sentence. Cue ridicule and the hashtag #covfefe trending on Twitter.

  • Public goes nutellay crazy for AI design (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    Nutella hit the headlines in February this year after using an algorithm to produce millions of unique labels in Italy. The jars flew off the shelves with customers keen to get their hands on a one-of-a kind jar. Each label design was completely unique with only the Nutella logo remaining the same.

  • Champagne supernova: Cristal brand owner sues cava producer (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    Do you know your Champagne from your Cava? Quite possibly, but a High Court judge held in late 2015 that a Spanish cava producer trading under the brand name, “Cristalino” had used a confusingly similar sign to that of the famous tipple preferred by rappers and the like, “Cristal”.

  • All hands on deck as creative industries and search engines tackle online piracy (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    The UK Government, through the UKIPO, Ofcom and DMCS, has helped broker an agreement between Google, Bing, the BPI and Motion Picture Association over a new voluntary code of practice.

  • To UPC or not UPC – implementation of Unified Patent Court delayed (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is intended to provide a regional forum resolve patent disputes. At the moment, parties have to litigate patent disputes on a country by country basis across Europe, which is time-consuming, expensive and can lead to differing decisions in some countries. UPC decisions will have effect in all 25 states participating in the UPC, providing a single forum to resolve these disputes.

  • Playing with fire: user-generated content on Twitter (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    The strange world of Twitter, where brands engage with their customers at their peril. The main lesson learned from the recent #WalkersWave Twitter promotion is one that brands have heard before: the British public love nothing more than a piss-take.

  • Clash of the Titans: Google v Uber (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 5)

    23 June 2017

    In February, Waymo, part of Google’s parent company, sued Uber for theft of confidential information. Allegedly, a former employee of Waymo, who had been a key part of Google’s driverless car initiative, took 14,000 files and then shortly jumped ship to start up his own autonomous vehicle company. A short time later, Uber acquired the start-up for $680 million.

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