Insights

With the Supreme Court set to hear the appeal in Emotional Perception AI’s patent application next week, the UK patent profession eagerly awaits the outcome of the appeal.

Following last week’s historic third consecutive Ferrari outright win at the 24 hours of Le Mans, Dehns Technology, Software and Engineering Associate, Thomas Jeal reflects on another exciting event from this year’s race week: Toyota’s unveiling of their hydrogen combustion engine Hypercar Prototype, the GR LH2 Racing Concept.

Dehns Partner, Tim Wilson explores the recent news on the use of the semicolon plummeting and whether this change impacts the patent drafting of an invention.

More than ever, companies are appreciating the value of trade secrets as key IP assets that can exploited to improve their commercial edge. Trade secret protection varies in different parts of the world but many governments are proactively updating their legal provisions to ensure that innovators are protected.

Panasonic Holdings Corporation (Panasonic) brought an infringement action against Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd and OROPE Germany GmBH (OPPO), accusing OPPO of infringing Panasonic’s patent EP 2 568 724 in their 4G-capable products including smartphones and smartwatches. Emily Dekker, Trainee Patent Attorney discusses this matter in more detail.

Huawei brought an action in the Munich local division against Netgear for infringement of EP3611989 in relation to various of its WiFi access point products. Huawei had declared EP’989 to be essential to the IEEE 802.11ax (“WiFi 6”) standard and so was obliged to offer a licence on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. However, no licence could be agreed.

On 1st May 2025, Phase 1 of the EUIPO’s design reform came into effect. Many of the changes brought about by this reform are motivated by a desire to align EU design law with the world around us, which is increasingly manifesting in digital forms.

Printing giants Hewlett-Packard (“HP”) brought a claim of infringement against French electronics wholesaler LAMA France (“LAMA”) before the Paris Local Division of the UPC at the end of last year, from which they came out (partially) victorious.

The creation and enjoyment of music is, in many ways, one of humanity’s purest creative activities. It is tempting to draw sharp contrast between the aesthetic nature and inexact qualities of musical creation and the analytical rigour of modern scientific research and technological innovation. To translate into IP terms: isn’t music the realm of copyright rather than patents?

With the changes to EU Design law coming into force on 1 May 2025, there are changes to how renewal periods are calculated.  There are also significant increases to the renewal fees. Holders of EU designs should check carefully that they monitor renewal deadlines according to the new rules from 1 May 2025, especially as these deadlines will now fall a few days earlier in most cases.