©-LAW

Readers with a fancy for online IP enforcement will remember that last July the Court of Appeal of England and Wales issued its  decision  in  Cartier and Others v BSkyB and Others  [ here ] , in which it upheld the 2014  decision  of Arnold J in the High Court  [ here  and  here ]  that blocking injunctions are also available in trade mark cases under the general power recognised by  s37(1)  of the Senior Courts Act 1981 (SCA) .  This provision states that “ [t]he High Court may by order (whether interlocutory or final) grant an injunction … in all cases in which it appears to be just and convenient to do so .” The missed implementation of Article 11 of the Enforcement Directive UK Government, in fact, implemented Article 8(3) of the  InfoSoc Directive  into UK law by inserting  s97A  into the CDPA, and UK courts have ever since developed a consistent and thoughtful jurisprudence on the app...

Is there gift more memorable than a blocking injunction? What has been the most significant IP development in the UK this year?  From a policy standpoint (and in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum) the answer is probably the decision of UK Government to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement  [ here ] .  From a practical perspective, however, also considering the increasing number of IP infringements occurring online  [this is a general trend: see  here , at p 33]  the most significant domestic development in my opinion has been the  judgment  of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in  Cartier   [ here ,  here ,  here ] , which upheld the 2014  decision  of Arnold J  [ here  and  here ] , and confirmed that  owners of IP rights other than copyright can seek injunctions against intermediaries to block access to website where counterfeits are available. The UK frame...