{"id":84941,"date":"2017-10-01T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=5d0b911da74fec1d62cf4dbfe17a5e0d"},"modified":"2017-10-01T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T08:30:00","slug":"news-story-ip-unjustified-threats-act-comes-into-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=84941","title":{"rendered":"News story: IP (Unjustified Threats) Act comes into force"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The new law on threats is clearer, consistent across all relevant <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> rights, and will help businesses to avoid expensive litigation.<\/p>\n<p>An unjustified threat is made when someone unfairly threatens someone else with legal action for infringing their intellectual property, when no infringement has actually taken place. These threats are costly and disruptive, drive customers away and stop businesses trading legitimately in goods and services.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-ip-unjustified-threats-act-2017-will\">The <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 will:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>help businesses negotiate fairly over <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> disputes, and protect businesses who can be most harmed by unjustified threats<\/li>\n<li>make it clear what you can and can\u2019t say when approaching another business about an alleged infringement<\/li>\n<li>help <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> owners and third parties understand when an approach is a threat<\/li>\n<li>encourage <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> owners to approach the source of the alleged infringement, rather than customers or retailers<\/li>\n<li>encourage a culture of allowing businesses to \u201ctalk first\u201d, rather than head to court<\/li>\n<li>bring consistency and certainty across this complex area of <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"why-did-we-make-the-changes\">Why did we make the changes?<\/h3>\n<p>The law was complex, unclear, and inconsistent between the various <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> rights involved. It made <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> owners, particularly <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr>, reluctant to try and enforce their <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr>. It also made it difficult for businesses to make legitimate attempts to settle an <abbr title=\"Intellectual Property\">IP<\/abbr> dispute before going to court. The changes follow from detailed proposals put forward by the Law Commission for reform in this area of law.<\/p>\n<p>Read our business guidance to find out more information on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/ip-unjustified-threats-act-for-smes\">unjustified threats<\/a> and how they affect the actions you can take.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From 1 October 2017, changes will be made to the law on unjustified threats of infringement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}