Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Intellectual property definition

What does Intellectual property mean? Intellectual property describes intangible legal rights in creative, technical and branding outputs used and enforced in commercial practice, often abbreviated to IP or IPR. In the UK and Ireland the term is descriptive rather than a single statutory definition; discrete rights arise under specific regimes, typically including copyright, patents, trade marks, registered and unregistered designs, database right, trade secrets and confidential information, and the common law tort of passing off. These rights are territorial, generally time‑limited (trade secrets/confidential information can subsist indefinitely if secrecy is maintained), and confer exclusive rights that can be licensed, assigned, charged as security and...

Practical guide to UK unjustified threats in patents, trade marks and designs under the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note offers an overview of the application and purpose of the UK law on unjustified threats. Anyone issuing a letter or other communication that alleges, or even suggests, Infringement of an IP right in the UK should be mindful of the possibility of a threats claim (or Counterclaim) being made against them.

Outline of the threats regime

From 1 October 2017, the UK threats regime has been governed by the reforms brought in by the Intellectual property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 (IP(UT)A 2017). Under IP(UT)A 2017, a communication constitutes a ‘threat of infringement proceedings’ if a reasonable person in the recipient’s position would understand that:

an IP right exists (a patent, a registered trade mark, a registered or unregistered design, or a published application for any of these), and
someone intends to commence proceedings (in a UK court or elsewhere) against another person for infringing that right by an act carried out, or proposed to be carried out, in the UK

The meaning of ‘threat of infringement proceedings’ is discussed further in The definition of a threat below. A threat of infringement proceedings will be actionable unless it satisfies one...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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