IP and IT

  • A costly e-commerce mistake

    E-commerce typo costs hotel dear

  • Are You Data Friendly?

    Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to privacy with regard to...

  • Auction watch services catch eBay fraudsters

    Auction watch service against eBay fraudsters

  • Avatars tackled for libel

    Avatars tackled for libel

  • Beat the commute and regain the work-life balance

    Flexible working

  • Blogging makes writer £70,000

    Blogging makes profit.

  • Bogus online reviews face ban

    fake reviews and sales to end

  • Boycott Wal-Mart website allowed

    Boycott Walmart site allowed.

  • Burst bubbles for O2

    Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement

  • Burst bubbles for comparative advertising-burst bubbles for O2

    Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement

  • Confidential information heading out the door

    Confidential information loss.

  • Confidential information heading out the door

    Confidential information loss.

  • Court of Appeal allows franchisor to claim for loss of franchise business

    The Court of Appeal has partly upheld an appeal by a claimant against the High Court's decision to dismiss his claim relating to the loss of his franchisees. The Court of Appeal held that the judge in the High Court was entitled, on the basis of...

  • Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs

    Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs

  • Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements

    Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements

  • Data Loss - What to Do

    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious suggestions is to think...

  • Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised

    Prison promised for data abusers

  • Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised

    Data protection abuse-prison promised

  • Data Retention Regulations now in force

    data regulations

  • Data protection law protects illegal downloaders

    Illegal downloaders helped by data protection laws.

  • Dealing With Breach of Patent

    When you discover that a business has breached your patent, what should you do? The answer to this question has two elements. The first is based on what you can do in law and the second is based on business strategy. Firstly, before picking a fight with...

  • Dealing With Subject Access Requests

    The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold – including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it....

  • Design rights infringement-the grass is not always greener..

    Mower design rights dispute

  • Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations

    UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means are based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications . A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of ‘spam’ that...

  • Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites

    Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites

  • Diversion of telephone numbers amount to unlawful interference with business

    Telephone line diversion

  • Does the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 apply to paper records?

    Data protection for paper records.

  • E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply?

    The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The Regulations do not just...

  • ENISA report highlights risks of social-networking sites

    Dangers of online social networks

  • Email marketing abuse is rampant

    Email abuse of marketing.

  • Fighting the phishers

    Fighting the phishers

  • Framing-the legal issues

    As you may know hyper-text mark up language (html) is the language of websites. It allows pages to be linked easily. In websites you often see hyper-links allowing you to jump to another site or to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of another webpage....

  • Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act

    Franchisee and data protection-who owns the data?

  • Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act

    Franchisee and data protection

  • Freedom of Information - What it Means in Practice

    The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 came fully into force on 1 January 2005 and it has serious implications for businesses doing business with the public sector. The reason for this is that because one of the aims of the Act is to engender greater...

  • Google in breach of copyright

    Google in breach of copyright.

  • Gowers Review-the first concrete development-new copyright powers for Trading Standards Officers

    Gowers review gives Trading Standards new powers.

  • High Court considers dispute over WORLD CUP WILLIE trade marks

    FA beats Jules Rimet Cup to win 1966 mascot. The High Court has found that the Football Association (FA) could prevent applications by Jules Rimet Cup Ltd (JRCL) to register as trade marks WORLD CUP WILLIE (the mark), and a device mark combining the mark...

  • High Court implies terms into settlement of copyright infringement claim

    Settlement duties inferred that those owed to court are owed to claimant also.

  • High Court orders website operator to disclose users' identities

    Website defamers identity revealed

  • High Court refuses to imply assignment into software development contract

    Software ownership would not be assigned

  • High Court rules ex-employees infringed database right by copying electronic files

    ex-employees who copied and retained various documents belonging to their ex-employer, such as customer contact details and sales figures

  • Home business trends for 2007.

    Home working trends for 2007.

  • Home workers have higher levels of health, wealth and happiness.

    Happy home workers are more content.

  • House of Commons Justice Committee reports on protection of private data

    data protection breach by HMRC

  • ICO brings successful prosecution for unlawful trade in personal information

    Unlawful trade in personal information.

  • ICO issues press release on festive photographs at schools

    School play photos are allowed.

  • ICO orders Leeds to disclose

    ICO orders leeds Council to release questionnaire information.

  • ICO proposes additional powers and penalties under Data Protection Act

    New powers for ICO wanted

  • ICO statement on proposed government communications database

    ICO statement on proposed government communications database

  • IPO rejects Target's challenge to Music Choice's trade marks

    IPO rejects Target Application

  • IR35 update

    IR35 Dragonfly decision

  • Information Tribunal orders disclosure of draft government WMD dossier

    FOIA on Iraq

  • Intel negligent in causing depression illness

    Intel negligent for causing stress.

  • Intellectual Property: Who Owns It?

    One of the biggest sources of disputes in industries based on innovation is a difference of opinion about who owns the intellectual property (IP) created in terms of designs, software, processes and systems. This is a general guide for businesses to the...

  • Is Your Website Disability-Friendly?

    The British Standards Institution has published guidance on making sure that your website is disability-friendly. Legislation commencing with the Disability Discrimination Act   (DDA) made it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a...

  • L'Oreal wins trade mark appeal

    L’Oreal wins trade mark appeal   The cosmetics giant won its appeal to the Court Of Appeal(CA) towards the end of last year when the court overturned an earlier decision by the High Court that had sent shockwaves-no pun...

  • Making your mark

    Making your mark-trademark law changes

  • Misuse of weblog by advertiser

    Weblog was misleading advertising.

  • More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube

    More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube

  • Music in the workplace? Get a licence.

    Workplace music needs a licence

  • New rules for company information

    New information now mandatory on company websites

  • Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants

    Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants

  • Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers

    Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers

  • Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk

    Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk

  • Online advertisers use online video gamers to boost sales.

    Online gaming boost for advertisers.

  • Online shopping boosts retailers.

    Growth in online selling brings Christmas cheer.

  • Open source software-know the risks

    Liability for failings of open source software is a growing business risk for companies using “free” software developed by a collaboration of software programmers who do not in the end own the copyright.     In the...

  • Open source software-software developer advised

    open source and ownership of IP development

  • Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP⁢

    Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP⁢

  • Patent Searches Improved

    Checking for existing patents in force is easy (and free) if you use the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UKIPO) patent databases which are accessible online. The new databases replace the Patents Journal and are designed to make obtaining information...

  • Pre-company formation IP

    Copyright ownership in new company

  • Pre-contract negotiations do not help deciding terms of agreement

    Pre-contract negotiations

  • Protecting Your Design Rights

    Protecting intellectual property has always been a complex area of law, but in one specific area things may be getting clearer. The Registered Designs Regulations 2001 include several protections for inventors of designs. If you have a new design which is...

  • Protecting website copyright

    Protecting website copy

  • Registering a Trade Mark

    Your business has its own unique brand and reputation and it is vital in a competitive marketplace to ensure that these are protected from unscrupulous third parties. Some business owners do not believe there is any point in registering their trading or...

  • Residential addresses are exempt

    ICO and council win battle in FOIA tussle over residential addresses.

  • Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences

    Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences

  • Skipton Financial Services in breach of data laws

    ICO accepts undertaking from financial services company for breach of DPA

  • Spicy Spicy not so Nicey

    Google sued for trade mark infringement

  • The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com

    The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com

  • The Eight Data Protection Principles

    Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. Here is a checklist. Data must be: fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; ...

  • The dangers of online portrayals

    MySpace and other online dangers for job candidates.

  • The legal future is digital

    The future of the UK legal profession is digital declares an EU Lawyers’ group. The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has adopted draft guidelines which means “ chip and pin” ID cards and digital signatures for lawyers are...

  • The power of social networking

    Often in the news for the wrong reasons-grooming, online suicides, defamation etc etc-HSBC earlier this year succumbed to student lobbying via the internet when students began a protest blog on Facebook against overdraft interest charges that were...

  • Two cows, a cat and no hey diddle diddle

    Domain name cannot be owned by pet/animal.

  • Unfair terms: reasonableness of exclusion clause

    Business to business exclusion clauses

  • Vexatious requests for FOIA

    Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.

  • Vexatious requests for FoIA

    Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.

  • Watch out for bogus websites

    Copying websites-criminals-real danger.

  • Wayne Rooney scores in domain name dispute

    Wayne Rooney beats cybersquatter

  • Web content watch service

    Webcontent watch for infringement

  • What to do When Your IT Doesn't Work

    These days it is increasingly the case that when your IT doesn't work, neither does your business. Clearly, the best way to deal with IT problems is prevention, which means doing regular backups, proper systems maintenance, keeping anti-virus protection up...

  • illegal downloads

    Illegal downloading blocked
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Latest News

Easier Access to Justice to Enforce Patent and Design Rights
Nuisance Callers and Spammers Face Increased Penalties
Court Condemns Unfair Product Comparison
How Do I Enforce My Copyright?
Sound-Alike Infringes
New Rules on Privacy and Electronic Communications
Descriptive Number Cannot Be Registered as Trade Mark
Where is a Website?
Removal Firms Pay for Misuse of Trade Association Marks
Graphical User Interface Copyright Decision