The UK High Court has declared that Ed Sheeran’s mega-hit “Shape of You” does not infringe copyright in Sami Switch’s lesser-known song “Oh Why” ([2022] EWHC 827 (Ch)). The case focuses on whether Ed Sheeran consciously copied Sami Switch’s chorus. Accordingly, this case is a useful example of how a court will: (1) assess the…

Original Beauty Technology Company Limited & others v G4K Fashion Limited & others, [2021] EWHC 3439 (Ch) The High Court has recently awarded £450,000 in damages to a successful claimant in a dispute about unregistered design rights in clothing. Unregistered design rights in the UK are a unique right that often catch designs that fall…

Welcome to the first trimester of the 2022 round up of EU copyright law! We started this rubric back in 2021. In this series, we update readers every three months on developments in EU copyright law. This includes Court of Justice (CJEU) and General Court judgments, Advocate Generals’ (AG) opinions, and important policy developments. You…

  Running from 29 October 2021 to 7 January 2022, the “Artificial Intelligence and IP: copyright and patents” consultation formed the latest round in an ongoing national conversation between the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) and interested stakeholders (see here). The consultation sought views on the prospects for facilitating patent and copyright protections for “inventions…

Running from 29 October 2021 to 7 January 2022, the “Artificial Intelligence and IP: copyright and patents” consultation formed the latest round in an ongoing national conversation between the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) and interested stakeholders (see here). It followed the UKIPO’s previous, more exploratory inquiry into anticipated interactions between IP protection across the…

Readers of this blog will be familiar with the English High Court’s strong track record in issuing injunctions to compel internet service providers (“ISPs”) to block access to copyright-infringing websites.  In the latest such order issued by the High Court (on 3 February 2022), one of the target websites was a cyberlocker hosting movies and…

There has been widespread press coverage of Meghan Markle’s (the Duchess of Sussex) recent success in a claim which she brought against the publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Mail Online website (“the Mail”). In February 2021, the High Court granted Ms Markle summary judgment on her claim for misuse of…

The European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has recently published a report on Online Copyright Infringement in the European Union. The report examines the consumption of copyright-infringing content in the EU Member States and the UK between January 2017 and December 2020. The underlying data covers access to TV programmes, music and film, using a variety of…

  On 29 October 2021, the UK Intellectual Property Office launched a public consultation looking at how the copyright and patent regimes should deal with artificial intelligence. The UKIPO underlines the crucial role played by AI when it comes to innovation and creativity. With this consultation, the Office seeks to assess whether the current IP…

The UK government has run a consultation on the future of the UK’s exhaustion of IP rights regime. This ran for 12 weeks, closing on 31 August 2021. The consultation was open to responses from businesses, representative organisations, civil society organisations, legal practitioners, creators and consumers. The government is now considering the responses to the…