While the subject of the appropriate court fees to pay when issuing proceedings is not normally an exciting one to write about (indeed some readers of this post will say that this remains the case) a recent application concerning the appropriate fees to pay in a trade mark action (Lifestyles Equities CV v Sportsdirect.com Retail…

A decision from Mr Justice Birss in Adaptive Spectrum And Signal Alignment Inc v British Telecommunications Plc [2014] EWHC 4194 has introduced additional complications for parties found to infringe a patent who then seek to work around the same. In essence that party cannot simply sit back and assume that the only feature to address…

and Carissa Kendall-Palmer In HTC Corporation v Gemalto SA and HTC Corporation v Gemalto NV [2013] EWHC 1876 (Pat), Mr Justice Birss ruled upon the validity and infringement of two telecommunications patents concerning smart/chip card technology. The Claimant came to the High Court of England and Wales seeking revocation of the patents; the Defendant counterclaimed…

Section 70 of the UK’s 1977 Patents Act “the Act” (as shown below) creates a cause of action against a party that issues groundless threats of patent infringement: (1) Where a person (whether or not the proprietor of, or entitled to any right in, a patent) by circulars, advertisements or otherwise threatens another person with…

And Carissa Kendall-Palmer This piece follows from two previous postings to this blog by Robert Lundie Smith on the Nokia/HTC/IPCom FRAND litigation before the High Court of England and Wales (here and here). This latest update, for which Robert is joined by colleague Carissa Kendall-Palmer, explains how the joint trial of FRAND issues in the…

FRAND licensing terms (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) and their impact upon electronics and telecommunications patent litigation is fast becoming a hot topic amongst the patent blogs. One case that has so far slipped under the radar of many commentators is the forthcoming Nokia/HTC/IPCom FRAND trial before the High Court of England and Wales. The trial,…

In ruling on an application to transfer a passing off and trade mark infringement action from the Patents County Court (PCC) to the High Court, HHJ Birss QC has provided further useful guidance for prospective litigants on use of the PCC as the chosen forum for intellectual property (IP) litigation. The Claimant, Comic Enterprises Limited,…