Naked Law

All I want for Christmas ...

True to form, the members of the Naked Law team have each approached Christmas differently.  Some of us have had gifts arriving from some excellent e-shopping sites for weeks, others started their shopping months ago ... and I started my shopping last Friday (though I blame the lost wallet for that).  As a result of our experiences, we have garnered useful information on the optimum choice of Christmas present for those with an interest in technology and law.  I am pleased to post the results of that research here today.

We recommend buying the new publication "Blogging and Other Social Media", written principally by Alex Newson with Deryck Houghton and Justin Patten.  True to form for a book about collaborative media, the Naked Law team also contributed the chapter on blogging and the law.  In case you're trying to track it down in your bookshop, it looks like this:

  

You might also want to seek out a copy online - you can find it here and here.

The Naked Law team wishes its readers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Flower wars

Interflora is at war with Marks & Spencer and Flowers Direct for allegedly infringing its trade mark name. Interflora is claiming that M&S sponsored the word “Interflora” as a keyword in Google’s AdWords programme and is now suing them in the High Court in London. When users searched for Interflora and related misspelt names, the rival company claims that M&S and Flowers Direct appeared as sponsored links beside the official search results.

In May 2008, Google altered its terms and conditions so that almost any word is available for sponsorship, although the text of the adverts that the keywords trigger is still controlled so that the trade marked term is not used.

Interflora is claiming that its competitors gained an unfair advantage by riding upon the fame of its trade marks. While M&S are surprised by the action, arguing that it is industry wide practice to do this and is not unlawful, the decision that the UK court may come to is uncertain. The dispute could set a precedent as to how UK trade mark laws will apply to keyword advertising in the future and may change the way that companies advertise on the internet.

It will be interesting to see whether the Court takes the view that M&S and Flowers Direct should be held liable for any possible infringement of Interflora’s trade mark, or whether in fact Google should be held responsible for allowing it. For the time being it appears that M&S and Flowers Direct have both removed the sponsored links from Google.

A decision not in Interflora's favour would arguably not sit well in the context of the rest of trade mark law given that the use of a third party's registered trade mark without their consent in other scenarios would be trade mark infringement. Furthermore, such a decision could impact on the value of having a registered trade mark at all for use on the internet if proprietors must then go on to pay large amounts of money to outbid competitors to stop advertising alongside themselves on internet searches.

Opening the innovation floodgates in Universities

As part of a debate on Higher Education and its strategic direction over the next 10-15 years, the Secretary of State for Innovation Universities and Skills, John Denham, invited the Vice Chancellor Paul Wellings of Lancaster University to look at the issue of university intellectual property and research benefits. The secretary of state invited consideration of two particular questions: "How should universities manage their IP for their own benefit and the wider economy?"; and "How should we maximise the research and economic benefits of Intellectual Property?". Professor Wellings published his report answering this question at the start of November.

Professor Wellings made a number of recommendations specifically aimed at universities.  In particular he advises that universities should ensure that they monitor use of their background IP and ensure adequate protection of the IP arising out of projects to prevent loss of rights and diffusion of IP. In addition, to try to foster enterprise development by their students, he recommends that universities should ensure that their policies in relation to IP assigned to the university by students do not act as a disincentive by properly informing students before ownership is assigned.

This of course will be of interest to all types of researchers including students and lecturers at universities.  Although one might consider this of relevance to only classical science-based research in the lab, of course this could also have an impact on developments made by individuals in universities in the IT sector, for example by helping to foster innovation and improvement in software and other IT tools.

Cambridge Cluster 3.0

Yesterday evening I went along to an event to celebrate the launch of the new Library House Cambridge Cluster Report (sponsored by BDO Stoy Hayward, as were drinks last night).  The event itself was unusually muted - though billed as a "meet the CXOs" event, I'm not sure I met anyone but service providers (accountants, patent attorneys, other lawyers, Library House representatives).  I have a copy of the report in front of me now but couldn't track one down online yet (I'm guessing it will appear here at some point).

The report itself has been something of a benchmark of the Cambridge cluster's state of health over the years - and generally has charted a period of growth and optimism since the first report was published in 2003.  Inevitably, along the way the reports have identified the reasons for the success of the cluster - the quality of research and graduates from the University, the existing success stories, recycling existing "talent" within Cambridge businesses, infrastructure - business parks and transport links, even (we like to think) the experience and quality of service providers.  The reports also boasted of Cambridge's disproportionate share of EU VC funding.

The new report strikes a more cautious note, acknowledging that "the future is not all bright" owing to the impending recession and the challenges of content-driven sectors such as "mediatech", with stronger bases in London and elsewhere, potentially leaving Cambridge a step behind.  I am not sure anyone is quite sure what the future holds but the report finds some comfort in the notion that "the Cambridge cluster has a great capacity to recover from such crises far quicker and more successfully than other regions".