Corporate & Commercial

In an age when sports broadcasting deals involve millions if not billions of pounds, it is not surprising that broadcasters and governing bodies will take all the steps they can to stop anything that they see as infringing their intellectual property rights. Sky and the ECB (the governing body for cricket in England and Wales) […]

What better way to grab people’s attention than to take a ride on the back of the Olympic train? Remember the excitement surrounding the London Olympics. I attended some of the events myself and the buzz around London was staggering. Shops were full of merchandise and people flocked to get their hands on the memorabilia. […]

UK businesses have for some time now been thinking carefully about what they will have to do to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Brexit has not made their deliberations any easier. Data protection law in the UK, as with many of our laws, is based on legislation which originates in the […]

In a bid to reduce the administrative burden faced by UK companies, and to create greater transparency as to the ownership and control of UK companies, a number of changes designed to simplify a company and/or LLP’s filing requirements that were introduced by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 are about to be […]

What is the PSC register? As of 6 April 2016, it is a legal requirement for all companies and LLPs to keep and maintain a register of ‘Persons with Significant Control’ over the company/LLP. Initially the PSC register must be held at a company/LLP’s registered office and made available for public inspection.  From June 2016, […]

Written commercial agreements are critical to the operation of businesses and are designed to give clarity and certainty to the parties regarding their rights and obligations in connection with the same. As such, ordinarily agreements of this nature contain a standard clause that any variation to the agreement must be in writing and signed by […]

Intellectual property law has never been a laughing matter. Until now. Having a sense of humour on the internet is fraught with many dangers, but, beyond the minefields of taste and offence, the wrong joke, using the wrong pop culture reference, could also get a comedian sued. Using material from a song or a film in […]

Unknown to most, a legal argument about a chocolate bar has been raging now for years and despite a High Court decision last week the battle is set to continue. The case involves trade marks, specifically a three-dimensional mark in the shape of the four-fingered version of the KitKat. In the UK it is possible […]

Every now and again a legal case will capture the imagination of the public. The monkey ‘selfie’ case is one such example. Back in August 2014 we reported on the exploits of UK wildlife photographer David Slater. In 2011 Mr. Slater took up residence with a troop of crested black macaque monkeys in Indonesia with […]

Unfortunately, many businesses do not own their web domain name. A domain name belongs to the person who is named as the registered proprietor and that may not be you or your business. If you instruct a third party (such as a web developer or designer) to register the domain as part of a general […]

Since 1988 the company Warner/Chappell Music has collected copyright royalties in relation to the song Happy Birthday.  A recent judgment in the US has put an end to that. If you are a copyright owner you’re entitled to charge for the use of your copyrighted work. It can be lucrative – it’s estimated that Warner […]

£90billion pounds is spent by consumers in the UK every month. This figure is not surprising with more choice and variety of products being available online and now being able to shop wherever you are on a smart phone or tablet. Shopping has never been so easy. Consumer law on the other hand has become […]