Miscellaneous – Case Law

Case law comprises the reported decisions of selected appellate and other courts (called courts of first impression) which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents. In England and Wales, courts decide the law applicable to a case by interpreting statutes and applying precedents which record how and why prior cases have been decided.

Intellectual property has many facets, and as a consequence will have an interface with every aspect of a business’ operation. There is therefore a large corpus of case law, which does not directly govern the rights associated with the various forms of intellectual property, but does impinge upon their use and their ownership.

A selection of such cases can be found below, along with the leading decisions which deal with the criminal provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1994 and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Downloads

MCA Records Inc & Anor v. Charly Records Limited & Ors – Court of Appeal – 5 October 2001
American Cyanamid Co. v. Ethicon Limited – House of Lords – 5 February 1975
R v. Gilham – Court of Appeal – 9 November 2009
Young v. Wilson – High Court ChD – 15/16 November 1955
R v. Johnstone – House of Lords – 22 May 2003