The beauty industry faces a constant challenge in relation to the truthfulness of the products it sells. Through the power of social media, beauty brands use influencers to endorse their products, adding a dimension of apparent authenticity to their advertising. In an attempt to regulate such practices, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has focused on transparency, requiring that brands disclose their commercial relationship with the influencer, usually with the hashtag “#ad”. The beauty industry now…

With online shopping at all-time high, ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) options are becoming increasingly popular. BNPL is an option that enables customers to delay paying for goods or allows them to pay in instalments. The service typically bears interest which consumers have to pay. It differs from hire purchase because with BNPL, the customer owns the goods on purchase, it is just that the due date for payment for the goods is delayed. This…

Monday’s announcement of the institution of a section 337 investigation of Certain Batteries and Products Containing the Same, 337-TA-1244, is notable as the first time in recent memory that a battery company has sued in the US International Trade Commission (ITC) for design patent infringement. Battery patents typically cover new and useful features of a battery, e.g. a cathode composition, an electrode architecture, a battery housing, or management software. That which is patented is…

This blog is a follow-up to our recent blogs on HMRC’s controversial Changes to VAT and Early Termination Payments and VAT on Compensation in Intellectual Property Settlements. As previously noted, the retrospective nature of the changes and the consequential risk of having to unpick historic settlement payments raised a number of issues. This has now resulted in HRMC’s plans to issue further guidance on the subject.…

US company Celgard, LLC has secured an interim injunction against its rival, Chinese company Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co Ltd (“Senior”), that prevents Senior from importing or supplying its battery accessory products into the UK. The Court found there was a likelihood that Senior had misused Celgard’s confidential information and trade secrets, and that the UK was the most appropriate forum to try the dispute. This is the first injunction under the relatively new UK…

The 2020 pandemic and related restrictions on retail businesses led consumers redirecting their purchasing and spending to online sales. For example, in the EU and UK, online sales reportedly grew by 30-40% after lockdown restrictions were introduced in March last year. This trend has shone a light on certain online sale practices that raise concerns for competition and consumer protection authorities, namely, geo-blocking, resale price maintenance, price gauging and the use of pricing algorithms, among…

In his continued blog series, Dr. Paolo Beconcini examines recent developments in Chinese IP law together with their international causes and consequences. In a first post, he reviews some of the major changes to the Patent Law and assesses their likely impact on foreign businesses in China. In a second post, he reports on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment between China and the European Union, which establishes clear rules against the forced transfer…