Insights & News
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Feedback - positivity vs negativity
02 November 2017Feedback is one of the most powerful tools for optimising workplace performance. Getting it right can help a business to constantly improve. Mistakes become learning opportunities; failures and bad behaviours are not repeated. Conversely, getting feedback wrong can destroy motivation, causing productivity to plummet.
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New Welsh Land Transaction Tax
02 November 2017From April 2018, Wales will have a new tax known as Land Transaction Tax (LTT), its own version of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). LTT mirrors much of the SDLT regime and many of the SDLT rules have been incorporated into the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 (businesses and tax practitioners have emphasised the need for consistency between SDLT and LTT), but there are differences which the Welsh Government say make the tax simpler and fairer, and improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
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Penny Newman comments for The Times Student Law: Adding context to recruiting
02 November 2017Penny Newman has commented for Times Times' Student Law magazine which discusses the Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) and how it can assist with recruitment.
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Unsafe property causes death, but still no claim allowed
02 November 2017A man visits a friend at his flat, falls down the stairs of the building (which are unsafe) and is killed. You would expect his widow would be able to sue the owner of the building in respect of her loss wouldn’t you?
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Smart Cities – what does this mean for the Property world?
26 October 2017One of the trending topics in property circles at the moment is the rather confusing term ‘Smart Cities’. Whilst there is a great deal of buzz around the topic the main question is what exactly is a ‘Smart City’?
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New ACAS guidance on mental health in the workplace
25 October 2017Mental illness costs employers in the UK a lot of money – up to £30 billion each year in lost production, absence and recruitment costs according to Acas, which has recently published a guide to “promoting positive mental health in the workplace”.
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Employment Tribunal fees - refunds begin
24 October 2017After an unexpectedly lengthy wait, the Government has launched the first stage of its scheme for refunding Employment Tribunal (“ET”) fees following the Supreme Court’s decision that the fees system was unlawful.
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Progress on the Parental Bereavement Bill
23 October 2017The purpose of the proposed Parental Bereavement (Pay and Leave) Bill (“the Bill”) is to provide a statutory right to paid leave for employed parents who suffer the loss of a child. Previous attempts to introduce paid leave in these circumstances over the past few years have been unsuccessful. However, this Bill - introduced into Parliament in July - has the support of the Government and is likely to become law.
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Lewis Silkin acknowledged in The Times: Common law libel rules unaffected
17 October 2017Lewis Silkin have been acknowldged in an article for The Times which discusses a number of cases including Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd, Lachaux v Evening Standard Ltd & Lachaux v AOL (UK) Ltd.
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Alex Kelham comments for Sports Market Intelligence: The lion's share: Premier League v UKIP
13 October 2017Alex Kelham’s article has been published in SportCal which discusses the new UKIP lion (logo) and its possible trade mark infringement on The Premier League.
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Brands and IP newsnotes - issue 6
12 October 2017Welcome to the 6th edition of our Brands & IP newsnotes put together to bring you the latest, and most interesting legal developments affecting intellectual property law. In this issue we cover; battlegrounds on Amazon listings, whether prestigious brands can prevent their resellers from selling online, the EU's position paper on IP rights, an quick guide on rights for designs, and trade mark infringements.
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Brexit: EU position paper on IP rights (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017On 6 September 2017 the European Commission published its wish list for how it hoped IP rights would be treated by the EU and the UK after Brexit. Five general recommendations were made, as follows:
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Servicing trade mark infringement (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The use of a third party trademark to provide information or describe a service being offered does not necessarily constitute trademark infringement. Where the use of a trade mark goes beyond that and creates an impression in the average consumer that the particular service is authorised by the trade mark owner, this will constitute an infringement.
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Coty: Keeping up appearances (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017Can a prestigious brand prevent its resellers from selling online? The question was answered firmly in the negative by the European Court of Justice in 2011. In that case, the court said that the French pharmaceutical and cosmetic brand Pierre Fabre could not impose an outright ban on their resellers from selling online.
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Vexed vexillologists: New battleground on Amazon listings (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The UK’s Intellectual Property Enterprise Court recently found in favour of a brand whose Amazon listing had been high-jacked by a competitor. In very simple terms, manufacturers can create listings for their products on Amazon. Third parties can then add themselves to those listings, and whoever offers the cheapest price is automatically presented as the seller.
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Watching out for individual character (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The EU General Court has dismissed an action to invalidate a Registered Community Design held by Nike for electronic wristbands. The case serves as a useful reminder of the principles to be applied in assessing whether a design has sufficient individual character to be registered.
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Equivalent ways to infringe a patent (Eli Lilly v. Actavis) (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6))
12 October 2017The Supreme Court has had to determine to what extent courts should depart from the literal wording of a patent claim and consider whether equivalent means to those literally specified in the claim would infringe a patent.
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Ask About … Retail, Fashion & Hospitality
11 October 2017Many of our clients in the retail, fashion and hospitality sector face similar HR issues. Each month one of the members of our team will identify an issue, ask how you would deal with it and provide our advice. This month we asked Lucy...
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When does a chat with competitors become illegal?
09 October 2017We all have discussions with counterparts in our industries. Those conversations are often vital to share knowledge, address common issues, and lobby for change. However, conversations with competitors can easily stray into dangerous territory, leading to potentially cartel behaviour.
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International data transfers - are model clauses now under threat?
05 October 2017Many of you will remember Max Schrems, the Austrian law student who in 2015 successfully brought a case to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) that resulted in the “safe harbor” - the agreement that allowed the transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US - being declared invalid.