Monday Miscellany

We hope that European readers are safe and cool amidst the latest heatwave. The IPKat is pleased to bring you some news and updates, which we suggest you read while staying well-hydrated in the shade. If you must venture into the sun, remember what we say in Australia: Slip, Slop, Slap - slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat! 

CIPA Life Sciences Conference

A Kat barely coping with the summer heat.
Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is holding their annual meeting for intellectual property professionals in the pharmaceutical, medical technology, and biotechnology sectors on Thursday 19 to Friday 20 November 2026 at The Grand Hotel in Brighton. Registration is now open - details here.

2026 Sir Hugh Laddie Lecture

A reminder that the UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) is hosting the annual Sir Hugh Laddie Lecture on Wednesday 24 June 2026, starting at 6pm. This year's lecture will be delivered by Professor Martin Senftleben (University of Amsterdam) on the topic: "Trade Mark Law, AI, Sustainability: Normative “Average Consumer” Concepts for the Dual Transition to AI-driven Circular Commerce". Registration and full details here.

FRAND updates

Our friends at the Kluwer Patent Blog have explored the recent developments in the world of standard essential patents. Filipe Gomes examines the private law mechanisms for "clawback" where an implementer has accepted high royalties early on to avoid litigation, at a time when no court has yet fixed a concrete FRAND rate, but years later, decisions on the same portfolio may reveal that those royalties lay outside any plausible FRAND range. 

Taking Portuguese civil law as a reference point – with clear analogies in German and French law – several potential routes for supra‑FRAND clawback can be explored. These include (i) error as to the basis of the transaction (allowing surgical ex tunc price adjustment without destroying the licence), (ii) usury and partial invalidity of a price clause in cases of manifest exploitation, (iii) change of circumstances (rebus sic stantibus) where later FRAND determinations disrupt the contractual equilibrium, and (iv) unjust enrichment where payments exceeding a FRAND‑compliant "cause" lack sufficient justification despite a valid licence.

ISHTIP Workshop

This Kat is in Brazil this week for the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) Annual Workshop. Registration is still open if readers would like to audit the proceedings online - and there might even be one or two seats available if any readers can join in-person at the University of São Paulo. This Kat is looking forward to seeing IP colleagues there, or perhaps a few days later for the ATRIP Congress. Safe travels to São Paulo everyone!