Eddie Powell of Fladgate

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Eddie qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1991 and he has also been admitted in Hong Kong. He is an intellectual property, technology and commercial law specialist and advises clients across a broad spectrum of legal issues.

Eddie has considerable experience in handling a wide variety of commercial issues and disputes involving all kinds of IP. He regularly advises on transactions ranging from exploitation through licensing or transfers to complex corporate or financing projects where IP is a key business asset. Eddie combines this with practical experience in enforcing IP rights and defending IP claims. He has considerable experience in advising content providers and publishers in this area.

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The Open COVID Pledge

Intellectual property rights are – by definition – monopolistic. How, then, can researchers, charities and NGOs collaborate with business in the development of new technologies to control and eradicate COVID-19? The Pledge The Open COVID Pledge[1] is intended to encourage business and academia to pledge to make their intellectual property (IP) available free of charge for … Continue Reading

ARGOS aggro: UK infringement issues arising from US advertising site

The Court of Appeal for England and Wales was asked to consider a case where 2 companies were using the same name in different territories, both legitimately, but one decided to exploit traffic mistakenly hitting its website by using targeted ads[1] The dispute involved two businesses who shared the “Argos” name, but on different sides … Continue Reading

European Unified Patent Court agreement ratified by the UK

On 26 April, the UK ratified the EU’s Unified Patent Court (UPC) agreement. Although much of intellectual property law and practice is already harmonised amongst EU member states, a UPC would set up a common patent court for the hearing of intellectual property cases, and the direct applicability of its rulings, across all EU member … Continue Reading

TV FORMAT PROTECTION – MORE DETAILS NEEDED

Introduction From Bullseye to Mastermind and from The Chase to Eggheads, it is undeniable that the public love a TV game show.  Who (in the UK) doesn’t remember Judith Keppel sensationally becoming the first winner of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  A total of 14.9 million UK viewers (that is about a quarter of … Continue Reading

The GS Media case: “He’s making it up as he goes along!”

The GS Media case: “He’s making it up as he goes along!”[1] This is not a Brexit whinge, but when I reread the ECJ’s decision in the GS Media case[2], I do understand where 52% of my countrymen were coming from.  Generally, the EU has (IMHO) been a force for good in IP law, by … Continue Reading

IP HOUSEKEEPING – A CANTER THROUGH EU REFORMS COMING YOUR WAY DURING 2016

Here’s a quick “heads up” of what I see as the key reforms of IP laws in the pipeline at the European Union (EU) level that are likely to affect EU regional registrations of IP, as well as the national laws of each and every EU Member State.  You will no doubt be reading more … Continue Reading

MAKING HEAVY WEATHER OF THE UK’S UNJUSTIFIED INFRINGEMENT THREATS RULES

The UK has for a long time had laws in place that make it illegal for IP owners to make “unjustified threats” to bring proceedings for infringement of registered IP rights.  In recent years, this prohibition has been narrowed to exclude threats made in respect of primary infringement (i.e. manufacturing, importing or supplying services), but … Continue Reading

The NOW TV case: Mere reputation of international brand is not enough to protect unregistered trade mark in the UK

Introduction The world has “internationalised” at an astonishing rate in the last 20 to 30 years.  People are better travelled and are familiar with overseas hotels, restaurants and media.  And it is the same with consumer brands: in the UK we are as familiar with Hershey’s chocolate from the US and Vegemite spread from Australia … Continue Reading

ANY SHADE OF GREY: UK COURT RULING AFFIRMS TOUGH EU FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS RULES

IP owners continue to get punishment dished out to them, and not on a consensual basis.   A recent decision of the UK’s Court of Appeal has reviewed the rules that dictate when parallel (or “grey”) market product can be rebranded to match the brand used by the market leader in the national market concerned. The … Continue Reading
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