Policy

Procedure

Complaints Submission Form

Response Submission Form

Reply Submission Form

Basic Guide to DRS

Timetable

Decisions

Experts

Nick qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and is head of the firm's 12 lawyer strong IP/IT Litigation Group, comprising 4 partners and 8 other lawyers. Nick and his team deal with all forms of IP and IT disputes and have particular expertise in trade mark and copyright infringement matters. Nick is recommended in European Counsel 3000, Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Trade Mark Practitioners and Legal Experts 2001 for trade mark litigation.

Clients

Nick regularly advises clients such as Accenture, Ordnance Survey and US technology companies Dell Computer Corporation, Sun Microsystems Inc and Autodesk Inc on the protection and enforcement of the intellectual property rights in their computer software. He also enforces domain name and brand protection strategies for companies such as Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), Laura Ashley, Dyno-Rod, The Zockoll Group, Hachette Filipacci Presse (ELLE) and Alfred Dunhill.

Publications

Nick is the author of and contributor to several textbooks on IP litigation. They include:

• Where to Sue in Europe and What Law will Apply: The Brussels, Rome and Lugano Conventions
   
• The Enforcement of Judgments in the European Community
   
• Pre-Emptive Remedies in Europe
   
• International Technology Disputes
   
• Franchising and Anti-Trust Procedures in the European Community

He is also a regular contributor of articles on developments in copyright and trade mark law to leading IP journals such as Managing Intellectual Property, Copyright World and Trademark World. Recent articles include:

• 1800 FLOWERS and Absolut: Infringement on the internet in the UK Courts (Trade Mark World)
   
• The Scope of Final Form Injunctive Relief in IP Cases (Copyright World)
   
• Beefing up Defences in the Cybersquat War (World eBusiness Law Report)

Recent Experience

• Acting for Phonenames Limited in its successful opposition to an application by 1-800 Flowers Inc to register its 800-FLOWERS trade mark in the UK. The judgment was widely reported and sets out for the first time the Court of Appeal's opinion on what constitutes use of a trade mark in the UK on the internet.
   
• Acting for Swedish company V&S Sprit, which has registrations for its ABSOLUT trade mark in a variety of classes, in trade mark proceedings in the UK and the US against Australian swimwear company Absolut Beach. In the UK, at a recent preliminary hearing, the High Court determined, for the first time, what amounts to infringement of a trade mark on the internet via a foreign website in the UK. The decision has been widely reported.
   
• Acting for Ordnance Survey against the Automobile Association in a large copyright infringement claim: The AA settled the case the night before the start of the trial by paying £20m damages and costs to the Ordnance Survey.
   
• Acting for New Line Productions concerning their anticounterfeiting and IP enforcement program for the forthcoming Lord of The Rings film.

Recent reported cases

antiquesportfolio.com v Rodney Finch [July 2000] The Times (copyright infringement in photographs on the internet)

Avnet v Isoact [1997] FSR 16 (domain names, trade mark infringement)

Hachette (ELLE) v Safeways [1997] FSR 529 (trade mark infringement and revocation proceedings)

Zockoll Group v 800 FLOWERS Inc. [2000] FSR 697 (use of a trade mark on the internet)

Music Gallery v Direct Line and Others [1998] EMLR 551 (copyright infringement and registration of music as a trade mark)