You cannot escape intellectual property law in the news at the moment. Recently Cadbury’s won the right to use Pantone 2685C exclusively on chocolate bars and drinks ending an eight-year legal battle against rivals Nestle.
Category: Legal
Contracts, Human Resources HR, Employment and legal advice for owners and managers of SME small and medium sized business owners.
Pay attention to paperwork to avoid court costs
Making sure a business’ standard terms are incorporated within signed agreements, are up to date and clearly printed on all key trading documents – plus good record keeping – could help businesses avoid expensive court cases, according to Kent legal specialists Vertex Law.
Can you ring-fence your business in your divorce settlement?
The Law Commission recently unveiled plans for a radical overhaul of how divorce settlements could be worked out in the future in England and Wales.
Is a loan classed as an asset?
The number of applications for freezing orders appears to be on the rise, perhaps due to an increase in insolvencies or simply more fraudsters operating in UK business today. Whatever the reason, the result is that it’s a pretty busy time for litigators.
Employment Tribunals explained
DAS is a leading legal expenses insurer and supports thousands of businesses each year in their fight against unfair dismissal claims. Here they explore what actions smaller businesses need to take to ensure that dismissal, redundancy or any changes to an employees’ terms and conditions do not result in a huge legal bill
Who owns the rainbow?: Colour trade marks in context
As Cadbury trade marks the purple colouring associated with their brand and Christian Laboutin wins protection over the iconic red soles of their shoes, Ian Wood and Mary Bagnall of Charles Russell, look at the ability to protect your companies colour.
Top Ten Guide to Trade Marks
Mark Kingsley-Williams, Director of Trade Mark Direct gives us his top ten tips to sorting out your trademarks.
Tribunals: Claimants set to face fees
Robert Gibson, Managing Partner of Samuel Phillips Law Firm and a specialist in employment law, warns that the introduction of fees for claimants in employment tribunals will do nothing to ‘weed out’ the vexatious claims which waste the time of both employers and the courts.
Are Vince Cable’s proposals on employment law going to make it easier to dismiss staff?
We asked Jane Crosby, Solicitor at Hart Brown to give us her opinion on the proposed changes to employment law.
Is your email marketing legal?
Email marketing might be a cost effective way to drive traffic to your alert potential customers to your goods and services and drive traffic to your website, but it is very easy to come unstuck and land yourself in hot water if you don’t follow these simple rules.
Can you protect your marketing strapline?
The best way to protect your strapline is to trade mark it. In order to trade mark it, the phrase must be distinctive and capable of distinguishing your goods or services from a third party as opposed to a message that could come from anyone.
Regional mediation pilot schemes for SMEs up and running
The latest steps in reforms to the employment tribunal system have been unveiled by Employment Relations Minister Norman Lamb with the announcement of the Regional Mediation Network pilot scheme provider.
Are you cookie compliant?
Last May, the EU Privacy and Communications Directive came into force which stated that all non-essential cookies used on websites must be clearly identified to the website’s users and that the website users must consent to the cookies being used (on an opt in basis).
Have you taken precautions to avoid prosecution under the Bribery Act?
In a recent survey Ernst & Young found that 72 per cent of middle managers in the UK are unaware of the Bribery Act which came into force last July.
Don’t find yourselves sued over the London Olympics
The Olympic Games may be the greatest sporting event in the World but, unless you are one of the few privileged sponsors, you may find yourself sued or even prosecuted for seeing the Games as a marketing opportunity, Giles Dixon, solicitor and founding director of ContractStore.com explains some the rules around the Games.
