Your role

This year you have been studying within the environment of a (hypothetical) training contract with the firm
Hope & Ray. You have just rotated to a seat within the Intellectual Property department of the firm’s offices in
Milton Keynes. Your supervising solicitor has asked you to complete a number of tasks, two of which relate to
a new business established within the last year in the local area and the other relates to the firm’s ongoing
education and training programme for its lawyers and clients.

Portfolio Sections and Tasks

There are 3 sections to this assignment brief for the portfolio. Each section may contain more than one task.
Guidance as to the recommended word limit for each section is included in the details for that task. The total
word limit for your portfolio is 3,000 words. Material relevant to each task has been included under the
relevant task subheading. Follow the instructions to build a portfolio for this assessment. You are advised to
work on this portfolio steadily throughout the module.

You must use the OSCOLA referencing style throughout your portfolio.

Instructions

A summary of what you are required to do for this assessment is as follows:

• Section A: You MUST complete Task 1 AND Task 2

AND
• Section B: You MUST complete Task 3
AND
• Section C: You MUST complete this task.

Each section is work equal marks.

Section A: Breach of Confidence & Reflection

For Section A you MUST complete Task 1 AND Task 2

Task 1: Advise the Team [700 words]

For Task 1 you are required to advise your colleagues at Hope & Ray as to LegalTeccy’s legal position in relation
to two employees’ activities. Further instructions can be found in the email sent below.

A.1 – Email from Cornelia

To: IntellectualProperty@hope&ray.com

From: CommercialLitigation@hope&ray.com

Date: 01/09/2023

Subject: LegalTeccy’s – request for advice

Dear IP Team

As discussed at last week’s meeting, to ensure that we are fully briefed before our next joint meeting with the
client, could you advise us on what you believe the legal position to be with regard to the following situation.

Jim works in the marketing team of LegalTeccy and he has been working closely with the product design and
development team on a new series of products. LegalTeccy heard from other staff in his team that he recently
received an offer from a competitor (Enterprise) so they are concerned that Jim may share information
regarding the products (especially the new series) and other business information if he decides to join
Enterprise. If he does, would this constitute a breach of confidence? If so, is it possible to prevent this from
occurring?

Please provide your advice, along with the legal authorities to support your argument, so that we are aware of
the principles in time for our next joint meeting with LegalTeccy. About 700 words should be sufficient for us
to gauge the overall position.

Thanks in advance!

Kind Regards,

Cornelia

Cornelia Sorabji

Partner | Hope & Ray |

Task 2: Reflection on Portfolio Completion [300 words]

Although this reflection should be written when you have completed the rest of your portfolio, you need to
focus on this from the beginning. Hence its inclusion in Task 1.

The tasks in this portfolio have required you to research, explain and apply the principles studied in this
module to hypothetical situations.

Reflect on the process of researching, understanding and applying the law. Consider your areas of strength,
the difficulties faced and how you would seek to overcome those difficulties in the future. If you are resitting
this assessment, you could also consider how you have developed your approach since the previous attempts,
to try to remedy the issues highlighted in your feedback.
Section B: Case Note – Patent [1000 words]

For Section B you MUST complete Task 3.

As part of Hope & Ray’s efforts to raise its external profile in the legal and business communities and keep its
clients abreast of developments in the law, it regularly publishes articles about cases, legislation and other
regulatory provisions relevant to its clients. This is especially relevant for newly established businesses, as it
encourages them to consider the issues relevant to them when selecting or protecting trade marks.

Your task is to write a case note about the following two case relating to issues relevant to Patent.

The articles are designed to be read by both the legal and business communities, so should cite appropriate
authority throughout. You should write your case note in a clear, accessible style. Hope & Ray would like this
next article to be published in the Liverpool Law Journal, therefore it is suggested that you familiarise yourself
with the style in which case notes in that Journal are written.

Task 3 Case Note – Stephen Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents

Trade Marks and Designs [2021] EWCA Civ 1374

In September 2021, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Dr Stephen Thaler who filed two patent
applications naming his AI machine DABUS as the inventor. You have been asked to write an article evaluating
the issues involved in this case and the reason why the court made this decision. Please see the law report in
this text: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/2021/1374.html
Section C: Audit of IP Assets of New Business [1000 words]

For Section C you MUST complete Task 4 (below)

Task 4: IP Audit

Your supervising solicitor, Kendall Taylor, has asked you to conduct an audit of LegalTeccy’s intellectual property
assets. See their email below which details what is required of you.

C.1 – Email from Kendall

To: IntellectualProperty@hope&ray.com

From: CommercialLitigation@hope&ray.com

Date: 01/09/2023

Subject: LegalTeccy Ltd – Audit of IP Assets

Dear IP Team

As you may note we have been advising our new client, LegalTeccy Ltd regarding various legal matters. In order
to recommend an appropriate IP strategy for our client’s business in the next five years, I have suggested that
we need to conduct an audit of their IP Assets and advice for protecting them.

We have been provided with some initial details which emerged from a recent client meeting, from these we
can undertake an initial audit that we can follow up in more depth when we meet the client. This task would
be ideal for our new trainee, who should do the following:

From the details provided in the attached report

• Identify the intellectual property assets belonging to LegalTeccy Ltd or others

• Evaluate the relevant form of protection
• Recommend action to be taken to protect intellectual property assets or to remedy issues identified
• Provide any other recommendations that you feel to be appropriate for the company’s intellectual
property asset management.

This audit will be shared with the client and will be used by the firm when advising LegalTeccy. Therefore, it
should be written in clear, well-explained terms, but should also cite the relevant legal authority in support of
the points made.

I look forward to receiving your audit.

Kind Regards
Kendall

Kendall Taylor

Partner |Hope & Ray|

My pronouns are they/them/theirs

C.2 – Re: LegalTeccy Ltd - Report from client meeting

Fee-earner: Kendall Taylor

Client: LegalTeccy Ltd
Date of Meeting: 1st September 2023

Company Details

Trading Name : LegalTeccy Ltd

Trading Address : Unit 12 Mount Farm Industrial Estate
Milton Keynes
MK1 3DG

Directors : Olumide
Ethan
Yasmin
Carol

Employees : 4 directors
2 full time staff
2 part time staff
4 independent sales agents

Business Activities

LegalTeccy Ltd (the company) research, design and develop inventive technological solutions for use in legal
practice and law-related business activities. It has established a new subsidiary company called ‘LegalTech
Solutions’ which promotes and sell their new products and updated services under the name LsmartSo. Their
marketing team develops the website and marketing materials including some audio and video
advertisements, but their team members do not have sufficient knowledge about how to protect their website
and marketing materials through copyright.

LegalTech Solutions is considering registering LsmartSo as a trade mark due to its successful selling of their
products and service. They plan to expand their selling market to other countries in the world but do not know
how to protect their label LsmartSo in the UK and overseas market. Meanwhile, they note there is another
company called LsmartS selling their law-related products and services. They are concerned about this but do
not know if they could stop this company using this mark. Both marks use similar colour and styles.
Besides, LegalTech Solutions have applied for a patent for a product in the UK and heard it will be protected for
20 years, is there anything else they need to do relating to that patent within that time.

Based on what is written above, conduct an audit of the company’s intellectual property assets. Advise how
they should protect them and manage the rights they hold.

This is the end of the portfolio tasks.