Strategic IP Support since 1997
Recent Insights & News
The Reverse Payment You Didn’t Know You Made
A patent settlement can look perfectly clean on its face and still carry antitrust risk buried in its economics. That is the lesson from an $885 million jury verdict handed down in Boston this month, where Takeda was found liable for effectively paying a generic rival to keep its version of the IBS drug Amitiza…
One Court, Many Borders: Why the UPC Just Redrew Your Litigation Map
The Unified Patent Court has signalled that its reach extends well beyond its own member states, and IP-intensive businesses should take note. In its 2 June 2026 decision in Fujifilm v Kodak, the UPC Court of Appeal confirmed that Article 34 of the UPC Agreement is not a territorial cap—where a defendant is domiciled in…
When a Sign-Off Becomes Someone Else’s Design
A confidential drawing sent to you for a single, narrow purpose does not become yours to repurpose — and treating it as though it does can unravel an entire IP position. That is the strategic core of the Full Federal Court’s decision in Comino v Watson Webb Pty Ltd [2026] FCAFC 66. A distributor received…
When the Monopoly Ends, Your Shape Has to Stand on Its Own
A registered design buys you a finite head start, not a permanent moat. When it lapses, competitors are free — and, the law says, encouraged — to copy. The Federal Court’s decision in Bodum AG v H.A.G Import Corpn (Australia) Pty Ltd [2026] FCA 238 provides a good illustration. Bodum’s double-walled glasses enjoyed a decade…
Built Before the Fight: What May’s IP Decisions Reward
Strip the case names away and one pattern runs through this month’s posts: the decisive moment in an IP matter almost never happens in the courtroom. It happens years earlier — in the words drafted into a claim, the honesty of a brand at first use, the rigour of a specification, the provenance of training…
