IP transactions: a cross-disciplinary expertise

Advising on IP transactions requires a broad range of legal and commercial knowledge and experience. IP law is a small but important part of this inter-disciplinary expertise.

One of many areas of relevant law is personal property law. To illustrate this, IP Draughts wonders how many readers have read the (English) Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA) and the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994 (LPMPA), which revised it? IP Draughts devotes a chapter of his book Technology Transfer to the topic of personal property. The chapter mentions several sections of these laws, including:

• section 61 LPA on the interpretation of contracts (month means calendar month, person includes corporation, etc)
• section 74 LPA on execution of deeds by non-Companies Act corporations, including requirements to apply their seals
• section 75 LPA on right of purchaser to have conveyance witnessed by his representative, eg solicitor
• section 1 LPMPA on the implied covenants that are introduced when property is transferred with “full title guarantee” or “limited title guarantee” (replacing those in section 76 LPA where property is conveyed “as beneficial owner”).
• section 183 LPA on the concealment by the seller (or their solicitor or other agent) from the purchaser of property of matters that are material to the title (criminal offences and civil causes of action)
• section 196 LPA on the service of notices affecting property
• section 199 LPA on whether a purchaser or property is affected by notice of any instrument or matter relating to the property

Other property law topics relevant to IP transactions are mentioned in the chapter, including multiple ownership of IP, bailment, and relief from forfeiture.

Some of these topics are addressed in greater detail in IP Draughts’ other publications, including Execution of Documents.

Some of these topics may seem obscure, or may not have been the subject of recent case law, but they still lurk in the background. For example, IP Draughts wonders whether solicitors and patent attorneys who advise on the sale of IP are aware of their potential  criminal and civil liabilities under section 183 LPA.