James Walmsley

IP CV

James has substantial experience in commercial intellectual property cases. His experience spans a broad range from advising small companies on their IP position to acting as junior in very large High Court litigation involving such diverse matters as blockbuster drugs, social networking websites, hedge fund technology and the brand of a leading airline. He has a particular interest in licence disputes but enjoys all cases where IP and commercial strategy intersect.

• Advising small companies on their rights and potential exposure under passing-off and reverse passing-off claims, copyright, design right, and restrictive covenants under employment and business sale agreements.
  
  
• GSK v Abbott (with Michael Bloch QC). High Court litigation surrounding Abbott's blockbuster drug "Humira" involving, amongst other things, questions of interpretation of the royalty clause in the patent licence, and questions of US, German and European patent office procedural law and law relating to the interpretation of patents. The case settled after a three week High Court trial before Floyd J.
  
  
• Proposed arbitration proceedings in respect of an option to licence agreement relating to pharmaceutical patents. The case settled prior to arbitration.
  
  
• i-CD v Popkov & Ors (with Michael Bloch QC). High Court litigation surrounding the then leading Russian social networking website odnoklassniki. In respect of software written in respect of that site, the case raised issues of copyright, database right, confidential information, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of employment contract, tracing, knowing receipt, and the liability under a contribution claim of a former employer to the alleged knowing recipient of the fruits of a former employee's breaches of fiduciary duty, as well as expert issues in both the copying of software and the evolution of the online social networking market. The case was listed for a trial of at least three weeks but settled after the first day.
  
  
• easyGroup v easyJet (with Michael Bloch QC). High profile High Court litigation surrounding the easyJet brand, involving questions of interpretation of the Brand Licence under which the airline uses easy branding, including the question of what, for the purposes of the Brand Licence, was "core" to a low-cost airline, issues of how trademark law was to be taken into account for the purposes of construction, and questions of what can properly be said to fall within the factual matrix for the purposes of contractual construction. The case settled after a two week trial.
  
  
• Hedge fund IP case (with Michael Bloch QC). Litigation relating to the ownership of IP in the technology used by a quantitative hedge fund.