In one of the more blatant – and frankly comical - examples of infringing a brands copyright and intellectual property rights, a garage in Brazil has recently been raided and closed down by police after it was found to be producing replicas of well-known supercars from manufacturers including Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Rich Energy, the main sponsor of Formula 1 race team Haas, has lost a claim for copyright infringement against Whyte Bikes, a UK mountain bike manufacturer.

A recent decision by the Court of Appeal in the US, overturning a previous and highly controversial decision regarding unauthorised use of images on the internet, has come as a relief to professional photographers worldwide.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), designers and manufacturers of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles has recently announced that it has been successful with a legal action made in China for copyright infringement.

In a move that will come as a relief to internet news aggregators such as Google News and the Huffington Post, the European Parliament has confirmed in principal the rules to be covered under the European Copyright Directive. The proposed reforms, which have been two years in the making, are still subject to final review but in draft form they would appear to assuage news aggregators who feared that they may face copyright legal action or other penalties for displaying short pieces of content – known as ‘snippets’ – from other, third party sources.

A recent decision by the European Parliament approving a new copyright law could have major implications for online user generated content and may even ‘destroy the internet as we know it’ according to user groups.