News archive
News articles for November 2011
Why the media matters in IP disputes
Earlier this month a self-styled David versus Goliath IP battle reached an amicable conclusion when Procter & Gamble agreed to drop its claim that a start-up company making Willa-branded beauty products infringed its trade mark for Wella.
The deal, reached a week before the parties were due to meet in court, was revealed less than a fortnight after at-home photos of entrepreneur Christy Prunier and her daughter Willa appeared in the New York Times alongside an article in which Prunier claimed that P&G was intent on shutting down her new business.
“For Willa, now a smiley 11-year-old with braces, the family start-up has provided all sorts of lessons about the business world, not all of them pleasant,” runs the article.
Managing Intellectual Property – October 2011
November 2011