People Rachel Alexander

Rachel Alexander

Partner

With a wealth of experience in high profile IP cases and online enforcement matters, Rachel has established herself as a trusted adviser to those seeking to protect their IP assets.

“I assist clients to protect their copyright, trade marks, confidential information and other IP rights, both in the online and offline world. I’ve helped clients in the film, music, sports, publishing and fashion sectors establish important legal precedents to enable effective enforcement of their rights, and have acted in a number of the leading cases that have tackled the interplay between IP rights and the internet. I have navigated clients through proceedings in the IPEC, High Court, Court of Appeal and the UK Supreme Court, and have coordinated strategic litigation on a multi-jurisdictional basis.

Not all cases require substantive litigation. I also have extensive experience of finding practical and cost-effective solutions when an alternative route is needed.”

Rachel Alexander is excellent - she's very bright, extremely good at identifying what matters and good with clients.

Chambers UK, 2023

Recent Experience +

  • Scopelight & Ors v Chief Constable of Northumbria Police & Federation Against Copyright Theft [2009] EWCA Civ 1156: Successfully represented FACT in Court of Appeal proceedings relating to the police’s power to retain seized material in circumstances where the CPS had declined to bring a prosecution and FACT wished to commence a private prosecution for copyright infringement.
  • Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. & Ors v Newzbin Limited [2010] EWHC 608 (Ch): Successfully represented the major Hollywood film studios in copyright infringement proceedings against the Newzbin website.  The case established key precedents for applying copyright law in the online environment.
  • PlayUp Interactive Entertainment (UK) Pty Ltd v Givemefootball Ltd [2011] EWHC 1980 (Comm): Successfully represented the defendant in a breach of contract claim relating to the delivery of football-related marketing programmes.
  • Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. & Ors v British Telecommunications plc [2011] EWHC 1981 (Ch): The first UK site blocking case.  The case established key precedents for the grant of intermediary injunctions.
  • R (on the application of BT Plc) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2011] EWHC 1021 (Admin); [2012] EWCA Civ 232: Successfully represented entities in the music and film industries in judicial review proceedings (High Court and Court of Appeal) concerning provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010 relating to online copyright infringement.
  • Racecourse Media Group Ltd & AMRAC v Philip Siers [2012] 7WLUK 412: Successfully represented entities in the horseracing industry in breach of confidence and breach of contract claims.
  • Universal City Studios LLC & Ors v Lace Digital Media Sales Ltd & Ors (HC12 D01487): Representing entities within the NBCUniversal group in trade infringement and passing off proceedings relating to “mock buster” DVDs.
  • Ministry of Sound Group Ltd & Anor v Spotify Ltd (HC13C03860): Represented the Ministry of Sound in a database copyright infringement case against Spotify.
  • Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & Ors v Harris [2014] EWHC 1568 (Ch): Acted for the major US film studios in successful copyright infringement proceedings against the operator of the Newzbin2 website.  The case confirms that liability for unlawful means conspiracy can be established on the basis of copyright infringement.
  • Cartier & Ors v British Telecommunications plc & Ors [2014] EWHC 3354 (Ch); [2016] EWCA Civ 658; [2018] UKSC 28: Successfully represented brand owners within the Richemont group in a seminal case establishing site blocking as a remedy for trade mark owners (High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court proceedings).
  • Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. & Ors v Sky UK Limited [2015] EWHC 1082 (Ch): Securing a site blocking injunction requiring UK internet service providers to block access to “popcorn time” websites.
  • Bloomsbury Publishing plc & Ors v British Telecommunications plc (HC-2015-001166): Securing site blocking orders for a coalition of publishers directed to a number of copyright infringing websites.
  • Performing Right Society Ltd v SoundCloud Ltd (HC‐2015‐003033): Represented PRS in a case concerning copyright infringement claims and the ambit of the hosting safe harbour.
  • Enforcement strategy to tackle developers of Kodi add-ons: Successfully implemented an enforcement strategy for a coalition of leading global content providers to address the availability of add-ons that provide illegal access to entertainment content.
  • Co‐ordination of multi‐territorial copyright enforcement actions: Coordinating site blocking actions in multiple territories for a group of academic publishers to address wholesale copyright infringement undertaken by two online operations.
  • easyGroup Ltd v Netflix Inc. (IL-2018-000176): Currently representing Netflix in the defence of trade mark and copyright infringement proceedings issued by easyGroup in the High Court.
  • Warner Music UK Ltd & Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd v TuneIn Inc. [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch): Successfully represented the Warner Music and Sony Music Entertainment groups in a copyright infringement action against the TuneIn radio aggregation platform. The case raises complex issues regarding the communication to the public right.
  • Performing Right Society Ltd v Qatar Airways Group Q.C.S.C. (IL-2019-000150): Currently representing PRS in copyright infringement proceedings issued against Qatar Airways in the High Court.