Of the mainstream UK political parties, only the Liberal Democratic Party is overtly “Remain”.  It has just launched its EU Parliamentary Election campaign with the somewhat surprising slogan “Bollocks to Brexit”.  From an IP lawyer’s perspective, this raises an amusing question of whether copyright could subsist in such a slogan, because if so, the LibDems…

Whilst it is highly debatable whether the EU Withdrawal Agreement will get through the UK Parliament, the chances are that if any revised deal is struck later, the IP provisions will remain unchanged.  (The Johnson brothers, and even Jacob Rees-Mogg are unlikely to be terribly exercised about matters such as the continued application post- 31…

  At last the doubters have been proven wrong. The UK has ratified the UPC Agreement.  The news was announced this afternoon by IP Minister, Sam Gyimah MP, at an IP Awareness Network event at the House of Commons Terrace to celebrate World IP Day, and we can expect to see this ratification recorded tomorrow…

Different countries have different constitutional requirements before they can ratify an international agreement like the UPCA. Some, like France, can ratify first, and sort out the legislation required to comply with the Treaty later, whilst other countries like the UK and Germany, do it the other way around, passing relevant legislation first, with formal ratification following…