United Kingdom: Intellectual Property

H7B Limited - a company listing Victoria Beckham as a director - has filed two UK trade mark applications for ‘HIKU BY HARPER' on 2 October 2025.

In a notable early move as Under Secretary of Commerce and USPTO Director, John Squires has vacated a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision that had introduced a new § 101 rejection against a DeepMind patent application on machine-learning methods (Ex parte Desjardins, Appeal 2024-000567, App. 16/319,040).

Premier Inn has successfully defended a trademark infringement case brought by easyGroup concerning the use of the phrase ‘rest easy'.