page_title: Bristows
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Bristows / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: Unilever House, Blackfriars, London, UK, designed by James Lomax-Simpson and Sir John Burnet and Partners 1930-33
context_page_description: Bristows is a full-service commercial, law firm, particularly known for its technology and intellectual property work.
  In January 2008, the firm relocated from Lincoln's Inn Fields to new City offices on the first two floors of 100 Victoria Embankment, London. In May 2018, the firm opened its first international office in Brussels.
context_section_description: In 2002 Bristows represented Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) in an action brought against “chipping” of PlayStation games consoles, and, following a six-year case against the Metropolitan Police, secured the image rights to Doctor Who's TARDIS for the BBC.
  In 2003, the firm acted for Bayer AG on the £25 million financing aspects of its exclusive marketing agreement with GW Pharmaceuticals plc relating to the marketing of GW's pioneering cannabis-based medicine Sativex®.  In the same year, the firm acted for VIA Technologies in a hard-fought competition law battle between leading chip producer Intel and its smaller competitor, VIA Technologies. In this case, the Court of Appeal decided that VIA Technologies can bring Intel to trial, and alleged that Intel's behaviour is anti-competitive, that the way Intel uses its huge patent portfolio seriously harms smaller rivals, and that Intel is driving rivals out of business and harming consumers.
  In 2007, Bristows acted for the members of the 1980s band Frankie Goes to Hollywood who achieved victory in their dispute with former lead singer, Holly Johnson, over the trademark rights to the band's name.
  The firm relocated from Lincoln's Inn Fields to new City offices at Unilever House in 2008. Also, in this year, the firm acted in the first modern case addressing the principles involved in calculating the compensation payable under a cross-undertaking where the patentee obtained an interim injunction but subsequently lost at trial  The firm also acted for Smith and Nephew in a patent action before the UK Court of Appeal. In an unprecedented move, the trial of the action, which started in December 2008, took only seven months from commencement to Judgment by the Court of Appeal.
  Since 2009 Bristows has been advising SAS Institute Inc. on its ongoing litigation with World Programming Limited, a breach of licence and copyright infringement case which raises a number of fundamental issues regarding the scope of protection for computer software in Europe. The English High Court has referred nine questions of law arising from Articles 1(2) and 5(3) of the Software Directive in the case to the European Court of Justice for guidance. The decision of the European Court of Justice (expected mid-2012) is keenly awaited by those in the industry and the legal sector.
  In 2009, the firm acted for the defendants in the first UK case where compensation has been awarded to an employee inventor.  In 2010, Bristows won TMT team of the year at The Lawyer Awards 2010 for its work on the Smith and Nephew litigation mentioned above, which colloquially became known as "The Rocket Docket" for its speed from commencement to judgment.  The firm also won the UK Patent Contentious Award 2010 at the Managing Intellectual Property Global Awards.
  In 2011, the firm was recognised as a 'First Class' company to work for by Best Companies, a research group responsible for compiling the Sunday Times 'Best Companies to Work For' list.  In the same year, the firm advised Star Navigation Systems on a marketing/commercialisation agreement with an EADS/Airbus affiliate relating to a new form of "black box" technology for aircraft, which transmits real-time data to ground stations via satellites. Not only does this technology allow aircraft faults and aviation incidents to be investigated more quickly but also provides other benefits, such as improved scheduling for vital repairs and better aircraft route planning and fuel efficiency.
  In 2011, the firm also achieved a groundbreaking win for IPCom in a telecoms patent action before the UK High Court. IPCom was sued by Nokia in April 2010 for revocation of a patent relating to a mechanism for controlling access to the random access channel, a channel used by mobile devices when accessing the mobile telephone network. IPCom countersued for infringement of the patent in June 2010 by each of Nokia’s UMTS-enabled devices (UMTS is the mobile telephone standard under which the UK 3G network and UK 3G mobile devices operate). The Court upheld IPCom’s patent as valid and infr
caption: Unilever House
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