What's inside our April issue

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2026

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

What's inside our April issue

cover

Copyright rankings, design developments, managing brand protection, a rare patent case in Hong Kong, our latest UPC scenario, and why you have been doing patent drawings wrong - just some of the articles in the April issue of Managing IP

cover

The April issue of the magazine was published on April 1, and is available to read online: sign in with your subscription details or take out a free trial for seven days. In this issue:

  • I report on the recent INTA/AIPPI Designs Conference in Singapore in our cover story "Why we love (and hate) design rights". We offer five reasons why design rights are great, and (in the interests of balance) five reasons why they might not be. The article includes links to our coverage of the recent Trunki designs case at the UK Supreme Court and the Apple v Samsung dispute heading to the US Supreme Court.

  • Katrina Burchell and Célia Ullmann look at the struggles companies face in organising their brand protection internal structure, budgets and reporting lines - and offer some practical advice in "How to manage brand protection internally"

  • The third article in our series looking at hypothetical scenarios in the UPC considers a standards case from the defendant's perspective. Michael Carter, Nick Cunningham and David Barron assess how the legal, procedural and competition issues will be handled in the new system.

  • Wenhui Zhang and Stephen Zou review recent decisions on supporting patent claims in China. This article is particularly relevant for those involved in the biotech and pharma industries.

  • bear100

  • Till Lampel and Martina Pfaff look at a string of interesting trade mark cases from Germany involving colours, sweets and animals (pictured left).

  • Patent cases at Hong Kong's Court of Appeal are rare, but a recent judgment addressed sufficiency, novelty and inventive step among other issues. Nina Fitzgerald and Jeffrey McLean discuss it.

  • In a thought-provoking article on "The advantages of numeral word labelling", Amit Kumar Singh of TATA Steel asks if there is a better, clearer way to label the figures in patent documents.

The April issue also includes our roundups of IP news and moves, highlights from the Managing IP blog, website and social media, a special Utynam's Heirs from the International Patent Forum and our monthly collection of sponsored and free-to-read international briefings, covering the latest developments from Africa to Vietnam. 

It also features the third and final part of the IP STARS 2016 firm rankings, with the top copyright firms listed. See our recent blog post for more details.

Coming up in our bumper May issue, distributed from May 1:

  • awards-imp-innov.jpg

    All the news and photos from the Managing IP Global and North America Awards dinners (pictured right)

  • Disparaging marks in the US - analysis

  • Why the case law on design rights in the EU is looking up

  • Trade mark infringement and OEM in China - the latest cases discussed

  • Sports sponsorship: what to do when an endorser goes rogue

  • The top 250 women in IP listed

Plus much, much more!

Some of these articles will be available online before the hard copy is published, so to ensure you have immediate access, subscribe now and get the Managing IP emails.

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

An Australian top court decision clarifying honest concurrent use and wins by publishers against AI platforms were also among the top talking points
AIPPI has pulled the plug on its planned 2027 World Congress, and INTA has delayed hosting a meeting there, but the concerns won’t abate
Despite being outspent by a wealthy opponent, a trial attorney at King & Spalding says ‘relentless pursuit of the truth’ helped his team secure a $420m damages award for mobile gaming client
190 drugs face loss of exclusivity between 2026 and 2030, with the list including Bristol Myers Squibb’s blood-thinning drug Eliquis and immunotherapy medication Opdivo
Nokia, represented by a team from Bird & Bird, adjudged to have made fair offer to Asus and Acer in UK SEP dispute
Azhar Sadique and Kane Ridley, who founded the London office in 2023, are now both working in legal tech and AI-related roles, while another UK-based lawyer has also left
Partner Pierre Pérot rejoins the firm he left in 2022 alongside another returning lawyer, associate Camille Abba
Vaping dispute, in which Stobbs and Brandsmiths are the representatives, tested how the UK's Human Rights Act can apply to injunctions restraining unjustified threats
An AI platform being sold for £40m, and lateral hires involving law firms Womble Bond Dickinson and Cadwell Thomas were among the top talking points
With the London Annual Meeting behind us, we look back at some of the lessons learned this week and ahead to what 2027 will bring
Gift this article