Mark Wilden writes for The Barrister on fighting back against meritless IP takedown complaints

12th June 2023

3PB Barristers’ (3 Paper Buildings) specialist intellectual property barrister Mark WildenMark WildenCall: 2018 (pictured here) has written for The Barrister on fighting against unjustified intellectual property takedown complaints in online platforms such as Amazon, eBay and YouTube.

In his piece, “Rebalancing the scale: fighting back against meritless IP takedown complaints”, Mark explores three recent cases in which baseless complaints about alleged patent and copyright infringement have resulted in loss of income to individual sellers/content creators. Because sites such as Amazon, eBay and YouTube are not obligated to investigate the merits of infringement claims, Mark notes that “professional users are vulnerable to the abuse of intellectual property rights (“IPR”) policies which can seem opaque and inconsistent.”

Mark concludes his discussion by recommending that merely challenging the validity of such claims is not the right answer for those accused of IP infringement as it is time-consuming and without any financial remedy. The Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 and the flexibility of torts, however, can offer remedies to the victims of malicious complaints, with a High Court judgment generally benefiting both those accused and the platforms themselves in terms of decisions made around the merits of such complaints.

Mark’s full analysis is available to read here

Mark Wilden is a specialist intellectual property and commercial barrister, regularly acting for clients on cases involving copyright, trademark, passing off, database, designs, and confidential information matters. If you wish to instruct Mark or enquiry into his availability, please contact David Fielder via email at [email protected] or telephone 020 7583 8055.