United Kingdom

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Authorship, Exceptions and Limitations, Originality, Text and Data Mining (TDM), United Kingdom

(University College London)/ /1 Comment

  On 29 October 2021, the UK Intellectual Property Office launched a public consultation looking at how the copyright and patent regimes should deal with artificial intelligence. The UKIPO underlines the crucial role played by AI when it comes to innovation and creativity. With this consultation, the Office seeks to assess whether the current IP…

Brexit, Distribution (right of), Exhaustion, United Kingdom

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The UK government has run a consultation on the future of the UK’s exhaustion of IP rights regime. This ran for 12 weeks, closing on 31 August 2021. The consultation was open to responses from businesses, representative organisations, civil society organisations, legal practitioners, creators and consumers. The government is now considering the responses to the…

Case Law, Damages, Infringement, United Kingdom

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In a trial to assess the quantum of financial loss in the IPEC, FBT Productions LLC v Let Them Eat Vinyl Limited [2021] EWHC 932 (IPEC), Deputy High Court Judge Ian Karet found the claimant was not entitled to damages for loss of opportunity since that defendant’s wrongdoing did not cause the loss. Damages for…

Brexit, Case Law, Communication (right of), Jurisdiction, United Kingdom

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Recently, the Court of Appeal in TuneIn v Warner Music UK Ltd & Anor confirmed the continued application of “retained EU law” in the UK on the thorny issue of communication to the public and clarified the assessment of the “new public” in TuneIn appeal. The UK approach for now remains in line with the…

Authorship, Originality, Ownership, United Kingdom

(CREATe, University of Glasgow)/ /2 Comments

Interest in eSports (‘electronic sports’ or competitive video gaming) has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. With many traditional face-to-face sports suspended, eSports have become an attractive viable competitor for self-isolating new and existing fans alike. With no geographic discrimination, an all-digital medium and even ‘anyone allowed to play’ tournament models, eSports is now a nascent…

Authorship, Case Law, Contract, Ownership, Software, United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /1 Comment

Summary The IPEC has held than an employee produced software in the course of his employment, despite his claims he did most of his work in his own time, at home, and on a personal computer. In the decision, Penhallurick v MD5 Limited [2021] EWHC 293 (IPEC), Hacon J suggested that such factors did not…

Authorship, Case Law, Ownership, United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /1 Comment

The relative contribution of a joint author is a factually complicated and difficult matter to assess. The re-trial of Martin and another v Kogan [2021] EWHC 24 (Ch) confirmed this to be the case. We have previously written about this authorship dispute regarding the film Florence Foster Jenkins [here] and [here]. In this post, we…

Case Law, Infringement, Jurisdiction, Legislative process, United Kingdom

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Summary The judgment in PRS v Qatar Airways [2020] EWHC 1872 considers an interesting jurisdiction challenge in the context of international air travel.  In December 2019, PRS issued a claim in the UK against Qatar Airways (QA) for a declaration that QA infringed the worldwide performing rights in its musical works, an injunction to prevent…

Brexit, CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process, United Kingdom

(CREATe, University of Glasgow)/ /1 Comment

Here we have it. The first instance of regulatory divergence. The UK is leaving the European Union, and already the rules of the single market are starting to break. In response to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Jo Stevens, Intellectual Property Minister Chris Skidmore said on 21 January that the UK Government had no…

Case Law, Infringement, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable), United Kingdom

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In Response Clothing Ltd v The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ltd [2020] EWHC 148, His Honour Judge Hacon (“HHJ Hacon”) found that copyright subsisted in a fabric design as a work of artistic craftmanship and that the sale of garments made from such fabric amounted to copyright infringement. The case is an interesting development in English law…