Fieldfisher

Intellectual Property

Partner

Nick has worked on many landmark cases in the last 25 years including many multi jurisdictional cases which have involved parallel proceedings in the US, Asia and Europe.

Nick specialises in the enforcement of intellectual property rights with a particular focus on copyright matters (for both artistic and technology related works), design law, trade marks, passing off, database rights and trade secrets.

Nick has represented many UK and international businesses in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and before the European Commission.

Nick focuses on the media and entertainment, technology, retail, and sports sectors.

In the last decade, He has been involved in many of the leading IP reported cases. Examples of recent cases include:

Database rights   Successfully represented  Ordnance Survey, on one of the largest database rights cases in the UK [77M Ltd v Ordnance Survey Ltd [2019] EWHC 3007 (Ch)] Acting for Genius Sports in a claim for infringement of database rights against Betconstruct which settled out of court in December 2022 when the Defendant agreed to purchase a licence for Genius Sports' market-leading data [Genius Sports Technology Ltd v Soft Construct (Malta) Ltd [2022] EWHC 2637 (Ch)] Copyright Navitaire v EasyJet – acted for Navitaire in  the leading case on subsistence of copyright in user interfaces, screens, data structures and databases [Navitaire Inc v EasyJet Airline Co Ltd (No.4) [2005] EWHC 282 (Ch)] Successfully represented Ordnance Survey in a claim for infringement of Crown Copyright against the AA [HM Stationery Office v Automobile Association Ltd [2001] E.C.C. 34] Recently acted for Peloton in proceedings for copyright and trademark infringement against Echelon which settled in 2022 Currently acting for Getty Images in a claim for infringement of copyright and other rights against Stability AI relating to AI generated art.  Successfully resisted a strike out application by the Defendant: Getty Images (US) Inc and other companies v Stability Al Ltd [2023] EWHC 3090 (Ch) Trademarks Successfully represented the Claimant in one of the first leading cases on what constitutes use of a trademark on the internet in different jurisdictions (the 800 FLOWERS litigation) [1-800 Flowers Inc v Phonenames Ltd [2001] EWCA Civ 721 (17 May 2001)] Successfully represented the Claimants  in a case for trade mark infringement and passing off concerning character merchandising rights in BETTY BOOP [Hearst Holdings Inc & Anor v AVELA Inc & Ors [2014] ETMR 34] Successfully represented Karen Millen Fashions Limited in claims against Karen Millen, the founder of the business, concerning the rights in the KAREN MILLEN mark in various countries around the world [Millen v Karen Millen Fashions Ltd [2016] EWHC 2104 (Ch) 16 Aug 2016] Trade Secrets Successfully represented Vestergaard Frandsen in the leading case on trade secrets against Bestnet regarding the secret formula for new insecticide technology in mosquito nets [Vestergaard Frandsen A/S (now Called MVF 3Aps) v Bestnet Europe Ltd & Ors [2014] EWHC 3159 (Ch) (03 October 2014) and Vestergaard Frandsen AS & Anor v Bestnet Europe Ltd & Ors [2009] EWHC 657 (Ch) (03 April 2009)]