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Nice classes · Trade marks · Brand protection

IP & Brands.

Class-led reporting on how AI is reshaping trade marks, brand protection and IP strategy — for owners who treat the brand as the asset.

Correspondent: Harriet HallmarkSIC 69.10Nice class 35, 42, 45, 9, 25, 36, 41, 4347 articles

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Lead · Eleanor Vance-Hartley

Anthropic Is Now Fighting Copyright Wars on Three Continents. Canada Just Opened a Fourth Front.

The Ontario Superior Court action by Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press exposes a structural vulnerability no licensing deal can patch: Anthropic has no public content agreements with any major publisher, anywhere.

1 November 2026 · Read article

Anthropic Is Now Fighting Copyright Wars on Three Continents. Canada Just Opened a Fourth Front.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Class 36 Under Siege: AI Fintech Brands Stake Claims as UK Filing Activity Craters 60%

New AI policy signals from Westminster, a European head of government trademarking her voice against deepfakes, and a landmark study warning that AI clearance tools cannot replace legal judgement - all landed this week, just as AIBD data reveals UK Class 36 trademark filings have collapsed by 60% in Q4 2026. Financial-services brand owners are filing less precisely when they should be filing more.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

'Intakegate': Why AI Lawtech's Naming Crisis Is a Class 42 Brand Emergency

Two of legal AI's best-funded rivals launched products with identical names, identical pitches, and possibly AI-generated copy on the same week. The real story is not embarrassment - it is what a crowded register and descriptive naming does to brand equity in Class 42.

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Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

B&Q v. Wren Kitchens: UK High Court Draws a Proportionality Line Around AI-Assisted Disclosure

A London court has refused to let AI do the evidential heavy lifting in a major trademark clash - and the reasoning tells litigants exactly where the technology's courtroom utility ends.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Taylor Swift's UKIPO Voice Filing Sets a New Benchmark for AI-Era Identity Protection

TAS Rights Management's back-to-back UKIPO and EUIPO filings for a spoken sound mark and a stage photograph are the most watched non-traditional trademark applications of the year - and they arrive just as AI voice cloning reaches commercial scale.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Sound Marks, Deepfakes, and the Identity Gap: What Meloni's EUIPO Voice Filing Means for Brand Owners

Italy's Prime Minister has filed a sound trademark at the EUIPO to shield her voice from AI deepfakes - the first sitting head of government known to do so. The move crystallises a question every brand custodian is quietly asking: when AI can replicate any voice or likeness, is a trademark the right weapon?

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

The Inadvertent Infringer: UK Firms Face Growing IP Liability as AI Tools Outpace Legal Literacy

A Lewis Silkin analysis published this week warns that AI adoption is generating a new class of IP defendant - companies that did not intend to infringe but did so anyway. The legal framework has not caught up. Neither have the compliance teams.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Three Fronts, One Week: How September's AI Policy Storm Reshapes Class 42 Brand Strategy

China's top court issued its first AI judicial framework, the US DOJ staked out its position on AI training data, and trademark disputes in New York's busiest IP court jumped 24% - all in September. For any brand operating in Nice Class 42, last month was not business as usual.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Synthetic Influencers, Dark Patterns, AI: Marques Lisbon Puts Brand Counsel on Notice

A headline panel at Europe's premier trademark gathering this week delivered a clear verdict: brand counsel who sit outside strategic decisions are already behind. AI-generated personas and tightening regulation have made that absence costly.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

When the Name IS the Product: The EUIPO's OpenAI Word-Mark Rejection and What It Signals for AI Brand Strategy

The EU General Court confirmed in July that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU trade mark for software and AI services - a verdict with direct consequences for any brand whose name doubles as a description of its technology.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Counterfeit Toys Surge to Third-Most-Investigated Category as UKIPO Data Exposes High-Street Brand Risk

The UKIPO's freshly published Trading Standards Survey shows counterfeit toy investigations more than tripled in a year, implicating well-known consumer brands from Red Bull to Coca-Cola. With Class 25 filings already falling, the survey is a warning that brand owners cannot afford to treat physical retail as a low-risk channel.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Andersen v. Stability AI Goes to Trial Monday: What the First AI Training-Data Case to Reach a US Jury Means for UK Rights Holders

The Northern District of California courtroom opens on September 8 for the artists' class action that will test whether scraping billions of copyrighted works to train an image model is copyright infringement. The verdict will travel across the Atlantic whether Westminster likes it or not.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

DOJ's OpenAI Fair-Use Brief Rewrites the Brand-Protection Calculus - From New York to Nice Class 36

Washington just told every brand owner that copyright alone won't protect them from AI training on their content. For financial-services brands in Class 36, where our data shows UK filings have fallen sharply, the timing could not be worse.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

AI Brands Still Off the Register: Class 42's AIaaS Slot Sits Largely Unfilled as UKIPO Sharpens Its Observation Lens

WIPO formalised 'Artificial Intelligence as a Service' as a Class 42 term in January 2026, handing AI companies their clearest filing roadmap yet. Eight months on, Clarivate's annual data confirms most major AI developers still don't appear among the top UK trademark filers - a gap that a freshly updated UKIPO observation procedure makes increasingly dangerous to ignore.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Getty v Stability AI: The Court of Appeal Question That Could Redraw UK Copyright for Every AI Model

A new academic broadside against the High Court's secondary infringement ruling arrives just as Getty's appeal heads toward the Court of Appeal. The outcome will determine whether model weights constitute 'infringing articles' under the CDPA - and with it, the legal cost of building AI in Britain.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

When a Genre Prefix Isn't Enough: Demon Hunter v Netflix and the Multi-Class Brand Erasure Problem

A 25-year-old metal band is suing Netflix after a Grammy-winning animated franchise slowly consumed its name across recorded music, merchandise and live touring. The case is a textbook warning about what happens when brand owners underestimate how franchise expansion bleeds across Nice classes.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

UKIPO's September AI Overhaul: What Brand Owners Must Do Before the Digital Countdown

The UK Intellectual Property Office is weeks away from beginning a fundamental rebuild of its trademark search and filing infrastructure, with AI tools at its centre. For brand owners, the window to act under the current system is narrowing fast.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

GEMA v. Suno: Munich Court's First European AI Music Ruling Puts Every Generative Platform on Notice

Germany's highest-profile AI copyright verdict yet bars Suno from training on protected repertoire and asserts jurisdiction over US-based AI companies serving European users - a precedent that reaches far beyond music.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

The Trademark 100 Weekly: Tesco's All-Class Sweep, Walmart's AI Brand Push, and a Quiet Signal in the Class 42 Numbers

This week's Trademark 100 data reveals a supermarket filing all 45 Nice classes in one sweep, two US tech giants racing to lock down AI-adjacent marks across both registers, and a 61.6% collapse in UK Class 42 software-services filings that tells a more uncomfortable story about where AI brand-building is really happening.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

AliExpress's €550m DSA Fine Is a Brand-Protection Wake-Up Call Across Every Nice Class

The European Commission's record penalty against AliExpress exposes a brutal truth: platform brand-authorisation systems are failing, and the burden of enforcement still falls on rights-holders who file. With UK Class 45 trademark filings down sharply, the timing is uncomfortable.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Delhi Court Backs OpenAI on Training Data: What It Means for Every UK Class 42 Brand

India's first substantive AI copyright ruling hands OpenAI an interim victory over news agency ANI - and the decision's logic is already reverberating through global IP strategy, including for UK firms filing in Class 42.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

The 'OPENAI' Trademark Rejection Is a Warning Every AI Brand Must Heed

The EU General Court has ruled that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU trade mark across Classes 9, 42 and 45. The same week, an Indian court handed the AI industry a fair-dealing win on training data. Taken together, the two rulings reframe the IP stakes for every business building on an AI-inflected name.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Two Courts, Two Verdicts: What the OpenAI Rulings Mean for Every AI Brand Filing in Classes 42 and 43

Within ten days, courts on opposite sides of the world handed the AI industry contradictory signals on brand protection - one a lifeline on content, the other a rebuke on naming. Brand owners in AI services cannot afford to read only one judgment.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

The 'OPENAI' Word Mark Fails in Europe: What AI Brands Must Learn About Descriptiveness

The EU General Court has confirmed that one of the world's most recognised AI names cannot be trademarked as a word mark across Classes 9, 42 and 45. The ruling is a sharp warning for every founder who assumed market fame was the same as registered protection.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

The Name That Describes Itself: What OpenAI's EU Trademark Defeat Means for Every AI Brand

The EU General Court has ruled that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as a trade mark for software and AI services - a judgment that should unsettle any brand owner whose name leans on the vocabulary of artificial intelligence.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

OpenAI Can't Own 'OPENAI' in the EU: What the Class 9 and 42 Ruling Means for AI Brand Owners

The EU General Court ruled on 15 July that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU trade mark for software and AI services - a verdict that puts every AI company with a name built around the letters 'AI' on notice.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

When 'OPENAI' Isn't a Trade Mark: The EU Ruling Every AI Brand Owner Must Heed

The EU General Court has ruled that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU trade mark for software and AI services - a decision that lands like a warning shot across the entire sector. If the world's most famous AI name can be refused, no AI brand is safe by default.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Classes 9, 42 and 45 in the Dock: What the EUIPO's OPENAI Refusal Means for Every AI Brand

The EU General Court ruled this month that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU word mark across software, cloud and identity-verification services. For every AI company that has assumed a famous name is a protected name, the judgment is a sharp correction.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

The Name That Describes Itself: OpenAI Loses EU Word Mark Fight Across Classes 9, 42 and 45

The EU General Court has confirmed that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as a registered word mark for software, cloud services and identity verification. The ruling lands at a moment when AI-adjacent naming is already under intense scrutiny from both EUIPO and UKIPO - and it carries lessons far beyond one California company.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

EUIPO Tells OpenAI Its Name Is Too Generic to Own: What Class 42 AI Brands Must Learn Now

The EU General Court has ruled that 'OPENAI' is too descriptive to function as an EU word mark for software and AI services - a verdict that sends a quiet warning to every tech brand built on an AI-adjacent name.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

When the Patent Office Rewrites the Rules on AI, Trademark Strategy Has to Follow

The UKIPO's fresh examination guidance after the Supreme Court's landmark Emotional Perception AI ruling is not only a patent story - it reshapes how brand-owning businesses in legal services and tech should think about Class 42 protection and specification drafting right now.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

AI Firms Are Building the Tech - But Skipping the Trademark: The Class 43 Blind Spot

The UKIPO issued a formal practice notice this week reshaping how AI patent applications are examined, while fresh data shows Class 43 filings have collapsed 82.9% in Q3 2026. Britain's AI sector is rewriting IP law yet barely registering on the trademark register.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

Deepfakes, Scatter-Guns and a Register Under Strain: The AI Brand Crisis Hitting UK Trademark Law

UK trademark attorneys are resorting to broad, multi-class filing strategies to fight AI-generated deepfakes - just as the UKIPO raises fees, pendency times worsen, and fresh data shows legal-services companies are almost entirely unprotected in Class 25.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

USPTO's AI Trademark Toolkit Reshapes Pre-Examination: What Attorneys Must Understand Now

The USPTO has rolled out a suite of AI tools that compress months of trademark pre-processing into minutes. The efficiency gains are real. So are the professional liability questions.

Harriet Hallmark · Read article

AI Is Reshaping UK Trade Mark Filing - But Most Brand Owners Aren't Keeping Up

The UKIPO is deploying AI to overhaul how it examines and searches trade marks. The uncomfortable irony: the businesses most exposed to AI-era brand risk are the ones with no mark on the register at all.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

The Trademark 100 Weekly: Amazon, Walmart, and Alphabet Signal an AI-Driven Land Grab Across 31 Nice Classes

This week's Trademark 100 data shows Big Tech and Big Retail filing at extraordinary breadth, spanning consumer goods, AI services, financial products, and entertainment. The pattern is not coincidence. It's a coordinated IP land grab timed to AI product cycles.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

The Trademark 100 Weekly: J&J Leads a Filing Sprint That Maps Five Companies' Strategic Intentions

This week's Trademark 100 data reveals Johnson & Johnson, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Disney filing at a combined pace that signals pipeline launches, AI infrastructure builds, and platform territory grabs - not routine housekeeping.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Trademark Squatters Are Coming for Your E-Commerce Business - And Your Supply Chain Knows the Way In

China's first-to-file trademark system has become a precision weapon against foreign e-commerce brands. Reform is coming. It isn't here yet.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

The Trademark 100 Weekly: Tech Giants Mobilise Brand Defense as AI Race Intensifies

Apple's 53 filings this week signal major AI product launches while Disney's gaming push reveals the streaming wars' newest battlefield

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

USPTO Reverses Course on AI Inventorship, UK Supreme Court Rewrites Software Patent Law

Two landmark developments reshape AI patent strategy across jurisdictions, creating new opportunities and enforcement risks for innovators

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Brexit's Final Bite: How Evidence Shifts and Fee Hikes Are Forcing IP Attorneys to Rebuild Trade Mark Workflows

From January 2026, UK cloned trade marks lose EU use protection while UKIPO fees rise 25% and SkyKick guidance reshapes examination. For IP attorneys, it's retool or risk client exposure.

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Brexit Trade Mark Grace Period Expires: 1.4 Million UK Rights Now Face Non-Use Cancellation

Five years after creation, comparable UK marks lose EU-use shield as first wave of revocation challenges begins materialising

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

UK Trade Mark Clones Face First Non-Use Revocations as Brexit Grace Period Ends

Two million comparable UK marks can no longer rely on EU use for defence - exposing unaware owners to competitor attacks and enforcement failures

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

UKIPO Filing Surge Masks Register Clutter as Front Companies Drive Record Numbers

Behind the headline boom: why record trademark filings may signal heightened clearance risk, not market health

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

UK Trade Mark Revocation Wave Begins as Brexit Grace Period Expires

Thousands of comparable UK trade marks face non-use challenges as five-year EU-use protection ends

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

USPTO Director Squires Ends AI Patent Wars - But Courts Haven't Surrendered

New guidance reverses years of hostile examination, yet Federal Circuit maintains strict Alice/Mayo enforcement for software patents

Eleanor Vance-Hartley · Read article

Supreme Court Silence on AI Authorship Leaves Human Requirement Intact

The Court's denial of certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter settles - for now - that machines cannot be copyright authors, but leaves fundamental questions about AI-assisted creativity unanswered

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