“US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.”
The Guardian, 6th September 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A software licensing arrangement transferred as a result of a voluntary liquidation continued to apply for six months beyond the end of the initial contract period but an additional longer extension to that contract could not be implied, the High Court has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 20th August 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“The Chancery Division of the High Court must undergo cultural change – and replace its ‘patchwork quilt’ of IT systems – according to the first comprehensive review of the division in 30 years.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 31st July 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Google has been threatened with criminal proceedings by the information commissioner’s office (ICO) over data secretly collected by its Street View cars in the UK.”
The Guardian, 21st June 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In HTC Europe Co Ltd v Apple Inc [2013] EWCA Civ 451 (3 May 2013), the Court of Appeal (Lord Justices Richards, Lewison and Kitchin) ventured again into what Lord Justice Lewison described at paragraph [140] of the Court’s judgment as “the minefield of the exclusion from patentability of computer programs ‘as such’.”
NIPC Law, 13th May 2013
Source: www.nipclaw.blogspot.co.uk
“A UK technology firm that provides internet maps has initiated legal action against Google in the High Court in which it has claimed that it has been the victim of anti-competitive practices engaged in by the internet giant.”
OUT-LAW.com, 15th April 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
VLM Holdings Ltd v Ravensworth Digital Services Ltd [2013] EWHC 228 (Ch); [2013] WLR (D) 63
“Where the authority given by a head licensor to a sub-licensor was sufficiently wide in scope to allow the grant of a sub-licence which was capable of surviving termination of the head licence, the head licensor must be taken on normal agency principles as giving ultimate permission for the granting of the sub-licence.”
WLR Daily, 13th February 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Computer programming languages should not be viewed as being copyrightable, a High Court judge has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 28th January 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
Usedsoft GmbH v Oracle International Corp (Case C-128/11); [2012] WLR (D) 192
“Article 4(2) of Parliament and Council Directive 2009/24/EC meant that the right of distribution of a copy of a computer program was exhausted if the copyright holder who had authorised, even free of charge, the downloading of that copy from the Internet onto a data carrier had also conferred, in return for payment of a fee intended to enable him to obtain a remuneration corresponding to the economic value of the copy of the work of which he was the proprietor, a right to use that copy for an unlimited period. In the event of the resale of a user licence, the second acquirer of the licence, as well as any subsequent acquirer of it, was able to rely on the exhaustion of the distribution right under article 4(2), and hence be regarded as lawful acquirers of a copy of a computer program within the meaning of article 5(1) and benefit from the right of reproduction provided for in that provision.”
WLR Daily, 3rd July 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd: (Case C-406/10); [2012] WLR (D) 131
“The functionality of a computer program, the programming language and the format of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions did not constitute a form of expression of that program within the meaning of article 1(2) of Council Directive 91/250/EEC on the legal protection of computer programs (OJ 1991 L122, p 42) and, as such, were not protected by copyright in computer programs for the purposes of that Directive.”
WLR Daily, 2nd May 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“A computerised method of processing images and categorising features within it into database-searchable words is not excluded from patentability, a hearing officer at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 5th January 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
“Software companies should be entitled to bigger damages for the use of copied software, industry lobby group the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 13th May 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
“A company which indexes and sorts postings to Usenet groups is liable for the copyright infringement of its users when they download films, software and television programmes, the High Court has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 29th March 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
“A company has failed in its attempt to declare itself the owner of software that it paid another company to develop. The High Court has refused to declare that copyright in the software passed to Infection Control Enterprises Ltd (ICEL).”
OUT-LAW.com, 2nd December 2009
Source: www.out-law.com
“The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will still use a previously formulated test on software patents despite a court ruling which many took to be critical of its approach.”
OUT-LAW.com, 18th December 2008
Source: www.out-law.com
“The European Patent Office (EPO) has asked its ultimate legal authority to look at the European Patent Convention (EPC) and issue advice on the patentability of software. The EPO said that such advice was necessary to ensure the uniform application of the EPC.”
OUT-LAW.com, 28th October 2008
Source: www.out-law.com
Symbian Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks
Court of Appeal
“A method of accessing data in a dynamic link library in a computing device was not excluded by reason of being a computer program from registration as a patent as it imvolved a technical contribution which would enable computers to work faster and more reliably.”
The Times, 28th October 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Please note the Times Law Reports are only available free on Times Online for 21 days from the date of publication.
“IP chambers 8 New Square has scored a Court of Appeal win for technology company Symbian, in a decision that could see software patents allowed in the UK for the first time.”
The Lawyer, 20th October 2008
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Symbian Ltd v Comptroller General of Patents [2008] EWCA Civ 1066; [2008] WLR (D) 310
“A patent application concerning a method of accessing data in a dynamic link library in a computing device was not excluded from registration under s 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977 on the ground that it related to a computer program ‘as such’, since it involved a technical contribution to the prior art which would enable computers and related devices to work faster and more reliably.”
WLR Daily, 9th October 2008
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“Technology companies will find it easier to safeguard their innovations in the UK after a court ruled that software should receive wider patent protection.”
The Times, 8th October 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
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