Blog & News

Help, I’ve Just Received A Cease And Desist Letter!

As intellectual property experts, we spend much of our time sending or responding to cease and desist letters. These letters are the first step in intellectual property (IP) claims. They…

How to protect a TV format

Game show formats and reality TV shows like Love Island and Big Brother have been extremely popular not only in the UK, but also internationally. Format rights are therefore important…

Help! I’ve received a Notice of Threatened Opposition, what do I do now?

Well, let’s start by explaining what a Notice of Threatened Opposition actually is… essentially it’s a form (called a TM7A if you’re interested) that potential opponents of a trade mark…

Briffa Celebrates – Music Industries Association (MIA) – The trade body for the UK musical instrument industry

#BriffaCelebrates – Music Industries Association (MIA) – “CREATING AND ENCOURAGING MUSIC MAKING”     Briffa have been working with the Music Industries Association for 10 years and we think they are…

Contracts, contract, contracts – what do they do and why do we need them?

Let’s say that you and I are friends, we’ve known each other for ages, we trust each other and recently we’ve decided to work together on a business venture. Maybe…

Irishman Conor McGregor’s trade mark battles to secure registration of name and nickname – “The Notorious”

Conor McGregor’s trade mark battles This ‘notorious’ Irishman is the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion and former UFC Featherweight Champion. His most recent battles are in the trade marks arena where…

Briffa Art Party

Thank you to all our guests, old friends and new for making our Briffa Art Party such a success. We hope you had a great night and look forward to…

Briffa Celebrates – Kat Maconie

Margaret Briffa celebrates Kat Maconie, followed by a photoshoot with Duncan Raban, his surf board and red carpet! I am delighted to publish another in our video series #BriffaCelebrates with…

Bagel Frenzy!

Briffa Art Party – bagel frenzy! With the annual Briffa Art Party almost upon us, Margaret and Adrienne take to the streets in a frenzy to order and prepare 250…

New “Swissness” legislation, roll on “Britishness”!

New “Swissness” legislation, roll on “Britishness”! On 1 January 2017 the new “Swissness” legislation came into force in Switzerland. The purpose of this new legislation is to ensure the continued…

Briffa Celebrates – Evarae

#BriffaCelebrates – Evarae With the end of year winter celebrations over and snow threatened for later this week we must as tradition dictates turn our attention to summer holidays and…

BriffaBites – Spring Cleaning your Intellectual Property Portfolio

#BriffaBites – Spring Cleaning your Intellectual Property Portfolio For many businesses, they register their domain names and trade marks, put the certificates at the back of a drawer and forget…

BriffaBites – Star Trek

#BriffaBites – Star Trek As an avid trekkie, the latest on the copyright infringement brought by CBS and Paramount against Axanar is riveting. Published at a time when CBS and…

Indemnity Costs in the IPEC

Indemnity Costs in the IPEC One of the great successes of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (the “IPEC”, formerly known as the Patents County Court) is the recognition that not…

Briffa Celebrates – Team Briffa!

#BriffaCelebrates – Team Briffa! Briffa team punches its way into 2017 with the launch of our Briffa team photoshoot. This happy montage shot by our artist in residence Duncan Raban celebrates…

BriffaWay – Kindness

#BriffaWay – Kindness More than 2000 years after some poor bloke was nailed to a tree for suggesting that people should just be nice to one another, the kindness movement…

A Christmas present from Briffa – 5 top tips for the perfect brand name

A Christmas present from Briffa – 5 top tips for the perfect brand name. Choosing the ideal brand name is no mean feat. For it to be truly valuable to…

Duran Duran Sued by Publisher for Reclaiming Song Rights

Photograph by Jelena Ivanović | EXIT Photo Team Duran Duran Sued by Publisher for Reclaiming Song Rights. As is typical in publishing agreements, Duran Duran’s deal with Gloucester Place Music…

‘Pay’ trade mark wars – Paypal and Paytm

‘Pay’ trade mark wars – Paypal and Paytm. Earlier this month, PayPal opposed a trade mark application for the “Paytm” logo in India. PayPal filed its opposition citing the visual…

Sale of “grey” goods in the UK is a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act 1994

Sale of “grey” goods in the UK is a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act 1994 Grey market goods/parallel imports are genuinely manufactured goods by the trade mark owner,…

How Not to Have a Counterfeit and Criminal Christmas

How Not to Have a Counterfeit and Criminal Christmas ‘Tis the season of counterfeiting. Intellectual property crime is rife at Christmas. You purchase a product for half the price of…

Kit Kat Barred from Keeping its Four-Finger Bar Trade Mark

Kit Kat Barred from Keeping its Four-Finger Bar Trade Mark Are you #TeamNestlé or #TeamCadbury, as once again the two confectioners battled it out in the courts over trade marks?…

Briffa Advises Santa Claus 

Briffa Advises Santa Claus Briffa are pleased that Father Christmas has once again been to see us to discuss his IP portfolio and general legal position.  At our meeting we…

Christmas Surfing Party!

Christmas Surfing Party! I can’t help feelings of delight as soon as I see see decorations going up in shop windows along Upper Street. As the days get shorter, our…

Briffa Celebrates – Lazy Oaf

#BriffaCelebrates – Lazy Oaf Lazy Oaf is one of our favourite clients who is anything but lazy or oafish. Launched more than 15 years ago by Gemma Shiel, Lazy Oaf…

Briffa Celebrates – Howies

#BriffaCelebrates – Howies Are you both active and fashionable? If so you will know Howies the adventure brand dedicated to making you look good while cycling or running. Born in…

#BriffaWay – President

Being a sci-fi fan the recent election of Donald Trump immediately called to mind the famous lines on topic written by Douglas Adams in ‘A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.…