The balance between human rights, particularly freedom of expression, and intellectual property, is at the heart of the current debate about the international treaty on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA.  ACTA deals with mechanisms to ensure that intellectual property laws, and the rights under them, are properly enforced in currently contentious areas, like digital downloads and [...]

The colour purple, no not the film or the book, the colour purple in packaging for chocolate used as a trademark.  Purple, or more specifically the colour pantone 2685c, is now a trademark alongside Cadbury for Kraft who bought the English chocolate maker in 2010.  Reported in Confectionary News* and widely elsewhere the decision by the UK’s [...]

The reason that the IP Observers website is here is in part to promote change, particular a change in the view people have of IP.  The role and importance of IP to all of us is steadily increasing, whether we are aware of it in our daily lives or not.   Now there is no need to take [...]

In 2010,The IP Observers commented on a successful day for Rambus, the microchip technology company, when they settled with Korean giant Samsung for close to $1B to resolve a range of disputes between the companies. As widely reported*, in November 2011 Rambus lost a jury trial at the San Francisco based California Superior Court, having [...]

A new study from Boston University School of Law* has looked at the impact of so-called “Patent Trolls” on the companies they have asserted their patents against with surprising, and yet unsurprising, results. The type of company often, commonly called a Patent Troll, is now likely to be tagged a Patent Assertion Entity, and is [...]

Shortly before Christmas, that’s Christmas this year, 2011, the dream of two if not more generations is due to be realised: the Unitary European Patent should be born, or at least regulations to create both the Unitary European Patent and the system of European Patent Courts to enforced this new form of IP should be [...]

The old adage “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.”, is increasingly untrue, as well as being as uncharitable as it ever was. Like all professionally performed functions in modern corporate culture, IP has long been the realm of professionally educated, highly skilled individuals: Patent Attorneys, Trademark Attorneys; Licensing Executives, and the like. Now [...]

Patent for inventions: hi-tech gizmos, new pharma drugs, new energy sources…. The technology list goes on and on . Like wise for Trademark. Trademarks for Brands: Coke, Shell, Apple,… And food Yes food. A few years ago Wall’s the UK ice cream manufacturer managed to patent its sophisticated multi-layer Vienetta dessert, which retailed in the [...]

When it comes to IP Strength and Value, there two schools of thought. Left or right. Up or down. More distinct than two points of view, they are “chalk and cheese”. In patent valuation there are the adherents of the “Expert View” and the “Metricationists”. The older and therefore more established approach is the “Expert [...]

Many words have been written about Steve Jobs since his untimely and premature death.  Rarely in the world of business and technology is someone’s passing a newsworthy event, even rarer that it affects more than close family and friends.  That Steve Jobs in both life and death could send ripples round the world speaks to [...]