A ‘worker’ who acts as a ‘whistleblower’ – disclosing breaches of the law – receives statutory protection under the law if he or she suffers detrimental treatment as a result of having made the disclosure to the appropriate authorities. Recently,…
Readers are reminded that on 1 October 2012, changes to the Money Laundering Regulations came into force that will affect many businesses, particularly those that engage in high-value transactions or that offer services involving the exchange of money. Broadly, the…
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published a report summarising the concerns reported to it by members of the public about UK website providers' use of cookies. Between May and November 2012, the ICO received 550 reports via its cookie…
When considering a trade mark, it is the mark as a whole which needs to be looked at. The obviousness of this point was illustrated by a recent case in the General Court of the European Union. The Court had…
The Supreme Court has confirmed the approach that a business should take when making a payment in lieu of notice (PILON) to an employee. Employers need to ensure that when they make a PILON they notify the employee that a…
Company directors should be made aware of a High Court decision which highlights the potential penal consequences of a failure to comply with an injunction. The court held that two corporate defendants (and a director of both companies) were in…
There have been many cases over the years which deal with ‘family names’ in trade marks – ‘easyJet’ having brought some of the more memorable ones. Recently, US banking giant Citibank opposed a registration application by an unrelated business for…
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has issued interim guidelines for use by the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) when considering whether to bring charges in cases involving communications sent via social media such as Facebook and Twitter (including instances of…
Some people may think that once you have obtained patent protection for your product, you need do nothing further to protect your rights against infringement or to claim damages from an infringer. However, in many jurisdictions, merely being the owner…
A recent case involving supermarket chain Somerfield (now part of the Co-Op) shows the wisdom of thinking through the implications of a contract before undertaking it. The supermarket chain made an agreement with a company called ParkingEye to monitor cars…