Was Sheeran “shaping” up for IP litigation?

Articles, Copyrights
Was Sheeran “shaping” up for IP litigation? Having categorically denied plagiarising aspects of other artists work for years, Ed Sheeran has recently been acquitted of plagiarising the chorus of Sami Chokri’s song “Oh Why” in his song “Shape of you.” Chokri explained that he first become aware of the potential similarities after hearing Sheeran’s “Shape of You” on the radio back ...

NFTs and the world of Intellectual Property Rights

Articles, Intellectual Property Rights
As NFTs merely represent a unique copy of the asset there is also the inevitable threat of the misuse of intellectual property rights. Nike, Hermès and the English Premier League (‘EPL’) have something in common – they have all recently been involved in legal battles related to non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. If you’re not yet familiar with NFTs, they are ...

Football sponsorship deals – brands, betting and booze – what a conundrum

Articles, Intellectual Property
What’s being considered Continuing our theme on finance, football, brands and sponsorship, a topic we’ve been discussing at Metis, is a change on its way, likely to ban gambling companies from sponsoring the football kit of teams playing in the most-watched league in the world, the English Premiership. The UK Government are rumored to be closing a regulatory loophole to ...

STAR PLAYERS & BRAND VALUE

Articles, Intellectual Property Valuation
My how things have changed The 2021 summer transfer window was eventful, to say the least – Lionel Messi departed his beloved boyhood club Barcelona following a period of financial turmoil at the club, joining Paris Saint Germain for a jaw-dropping £20m signing-on fee and a further £400k per week in wages. If that signing wasn’t enough to make your ...

IP Strategy – Pruning and Rebalancing Your IP Portfolio

Articles, Intellectual Property Strategy
Look Inwards It may sound counterintuitive but the most efficient way to build an effective intellectual property (IP) portfolio is to first look inwards – look at your brands, trade secrets, patents, software, data & analytics, etc. Create an inventory of these existing key IP assets and focus on the IP that is critical to your business. If it is ...

Our Recent CVA Experience – IP Factors and IP Valuation Insights

Articles, Intellectual Property Valuation
We have seen a shift over the last twelve months in the type of intellectual property valuations being sought to support Creditor Voluntary Arrangements (‘CVAs’), principally in retail, casual dining, and leisure sectors.  In particular, reporting the forced liquidation value or ex-situ value of IP assets is not being seen as a credible alternative for many larger restructuring scenarios.  Instead, ...

Introducing: The New Metis Partners Brand

Articles
In case you missed it, we were delighted to reveal the new, fresh face of Metis Partners. We are the same Metis Partners that has been providing unique intellectual property valuation services for almost 20 years, but with a new brand identity and new website.   We departed from our black and white logo, as intellectual property is no longer ...

5 Activities That Could Turn A Trademark Into A Valuable Brand

Articles, Intellectual Property
5 Activities That Could Turn A Trademark Into A Valuable Brand When is a brand not a brand? When it’s just a trademark! We are often asked to value or sell a “brand” but when we perform our usual IP diligence we discover that only a trademark exists, sometimes registered but not always, and as a result the value is lower than ...

Recognizing the Importance of Trade Secret Metadata

Articles, Trade Secrets
Why it matters We noticed that trade secret metadata was being discussed within the LinkedIn community recently. As it happens, this is something not unfamiliar to us and our IP100 entrants. In fact, we will be working with an IP100 company on the development and implementation of their trade secret policy shortly. Next steps In summary, the strategy for the ...