News

Dermot Roche in profile

European Innovation Scoreboard - bad news for Ireland?

The European Commission released the annual report on research and innovation across the EU in June. This report looks at innovation by analysing various factors, such as people skills, financial investment, SME activity, and resulting employment. Innovation performance is considered across the EU as a whole and also for each individual member state.

UK Patent Box Update

The UK Patent Box scheme enables companies to pay a reduced rate of 10% Corporation Tax on profits derived from exploiting patented inventions. The aim of the scheme is to incentivise UK companies to commercialise their patented inventions in the UK.

IAM Global Recognition for Secerna

Fast-growing intellectual property law firm Secerna is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a listing in IAM Patent 1000 directory.

International Women in Engineering Day 2021

Secerna celebrates ten years of supporting our clients

Secerna celebrates ten years of supporting our clients

Patent Trends in Europe

The last year has seen some extraordinary events in Europe and worldwide as businesses struggled to adapt to new working pressures. However despite the considerable disruption caused by the pandemic, patent activity at the EPO has remained extremely strong. Indeed the number of patent applications in Europe last year was almost unchanged from 2019 – with only a 0.7% reduction.

Summer Careers Festival

Standard Essential Patents and FRAND Licences

The most common licensing model for Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) is to license the SEP on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. A Standard Setting Organisation usually requires an undertaking that any patents which cover the technical specification of a standard will be licensed on FRAND terms. Even if a direct competitor is using the technology, the patent owner cannot simply enforce the patent via infringement proceedings to obtain an injunction in the usual manner.