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What changes to the law covering IP infringement claims mean for your tech startup

IP law

Peter Finnie, managing partner at GJE, talks through what changes to the law covering IP infringement claims mean for technology startups and scaleups in the UK.

On 1 October, a new UK law – the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 – came into force that made significant changes to what you can and cannot say to anyone you suspect of infringing your UK intellectual property.

Stripping away the legalese, at their core, the changes do three things:

  1. They add consistency to the restrictions governing how the suspicion of infringement can be communicated for different IP rights;
  2. They safeguard against the unfair exploitation of the monopoly granted by owning an IP right;
  3. They provide additional protections to enable professional advisers to communicate freely with their clients when advising on the issue of threats.

To understand the impact of the Act, let’s first unpack exactly what an “unjustified threat” is when it comes to intellectual property infringement claims....