EDITOR’S LETTER

New Year’s resolutions

“IP has a stake in all those major world events, and more.”

This issue of WIPR feels very much like a new start. With a new US President waiting to move into the White House, a COVID-19 vaccine being rolled out in record time, and the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU beginning on January 1, the end of 2020 continues this year’s theme of ‘eventful’. But it also marks the beginning of the end of a series of issues that have dominated the news agenda over 2020.

IP has a stake in all those major world events, and more. What I like most about this issue—WIPR’s last of the year—is the variety of topics that feature. From President-elect Joe Biden’s IP plans (page 5) and the impact of his predecessor’s pick, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court of the US (page 6), to a mind-bending review of unconscious bias in the industry (page 7).

Other highlights include the potential introduction of a proportionality test in Germany (page 10), how a dispute over electric car components led to the UK's first trade secrets-backed interim injunction (page 14), and why a suit over Pocky chocolate-dipped sticks could cause chaos for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (page 19).

I hope you enjoy reading the issue as much as we have enjoyed putting it together.

From everyone at WIPR, we wish you an enjoyable, safe, and uneventful holiday season and a happy New Year.

Tom Phillips is the editor of WIPR

Image: shutterstock.com / Melinda Nagy