United Kingdom: Copyright

The UK High Court has delivered a landmark ruling on online marketplace liability, dismissing Shein's copyright infringement claims against Temu and clarifying when platforms can be held responsible for third-party content. The judgment examines the boundaries of copyright ownership in complex supply chains and establishes important precedents for how marketplace operators should respond to infringement allegations.

For many years, counterfeits were viewed as a problem primarily affecting luxury brands. Typically associated with fake designer handbags sold in street markets, enforcement strategies focused on identifying and dismantling relatively limited networks of infringers.

When Hasbro alleged that SConnect's Wolfoo animated series infringed Peppa Pig copyrights through unauthorized audio clips, the High Court granted summary judgment based on spectrographic evidence. The case reveals critical lessons about outsourcing liability, international copyright exposure, and the strategic advantages of early litigation decisions.

The AI landscape has changed at unprecedented pace in 2026. A year ago, the UK's approach was one of deliberate restraint, with the government's AI Opportunities Action Plan setting out an ambitious growth agenda and Prime Minister Starmer framing the UK's position as one of seizing opportunities rather than over-regulating.

Regional coding and access restriction systems have evolved from DVDs to modern AI platforms, combining technology with copyright law to control territorial access to content. As China's MiniMax restricts its H3 video AI model in Western markets due to copyright litigation and regulatory uncertainty, a new era of AI geoblocking emerges that mirrors decades-old practices in entertainment media.

Crafting the scope of protection for your patent or design right relies on striking the right balance between two factors: breadth and validity. You will want to make the right as broad as possible, to capture any possible infringement and minimise the room available for someone to work around your right.

Lewis Silkin Partner Cliff Fluet explores the legal and commercial foundations of music catalogue acquisitions in a two-part podcast discussion.

Intellectual property strategy is evolving from a background legal function into a critical leadership priority as intangible assets now represent over 90 percent of S&P 500 company value. Drawing on insights from IP leaders at Atlassian and Uncommon...

The European Union and United Kingdom have introduced new Technology Transfer Block Exemption regulations, marking the first major update since 2014 and the UK's first post-Brexit IP-related block exemption. These regulations provide crucial safe harbours for technology licensing arrangements, determining when such agreements are compatible with competition law. While both regimes remain closely aligned, key differences emerge in their treatment of database rights, market share thresholds, and licensing neg