Articles

The ICO has issued a Report and Opinion on the use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology by law enforcement in public places. See here for the Metropolitan Police’s description of what LFR includes. The ICO Report draws conclusions from the...

A former employee of Unilever has been awarded £2m in compensation for an invention he created during the course of his employment almost 40 years ago. The case [1] was an appeal, heard in the Supreme Court which raised important issues concerning the...

The report of the Law Commission in September 2019 addressed the question of electronic signatures, confirming that electronic signatures can be used to execute documents, including deeds.  See our briefing on the report.  The Law Commission also...

When considering which intellectual property rights are important to businesses in the life sciences industry, it is likely that patents and confidential information will be top of the list.  Clearly, these can be vital as a basis for a life sciences...

In an ideal world, where parties agree that the English courts will have jurisdiction to hear any disputes arising out of a contract, that agreement should also contain a clause providing for service of proceedings on a designated agent in England where any...

In the recent case of Dronsfield v The University of Reading , the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that a dismissal was not unfair despite the fact that alterations were made to an investigation report following advice from an in-house lawyer. ...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a female manager massaging a junior male employee’s shoulders did not constitute sexual harassment under the Equality Act 2010 as although it was unwanted and created an intimidating environment, it was not...

Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out the minimum information that an employer must give an employee in relation to their working terms and conditions. Section 1 statements are generally given in the form of a contract of employment....

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) a record-breaking $5 billion for infringements of the FTC’s order of 2012 and for deceptive practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act 1914 (FTC Act). The FTC’s new...

The remedy of rectification requires the Court to consider and amend the terms of a legal document as a result of an “actual common mistake” by the parties to it. In amending the document, the Court seeks to reflect what the parties actually...

Recently, the Court of Justice of the European Union ( CJEU ), in its judgment in the Planet49 case, analysed requirements for consent and transparency in relation to the use of cookies. The CJEU’s judgment was as expected and highlights the fact that...

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (“Committee”) of the House of Commons has published its immersive and addictive technologies report on the potential harms they may have on users. In particular, the report looks at the...

Arbitration for life sciences companies   Arbitration is a contractually agreed method of resolving disputes. It is an alternative to litigation before a national court and so if parties have agreed to arbitrate, they will generally not be able...

It’s difficult to say where LIBOR transition stands. When we first mentioned the discontinuation of LIBOR some time ago, we thought that by now (with 2021 rapidly approaching) we’d know where we stood.  Sadly, there is no simple...

Earlier this month the European Data Protection Board adopted the final version of its Guidelines 2/2019 on the processing of personal data under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR in the context of the provision of online services to data subjects ( Guidelines )...

Matthew Padian (Managing Associate), Andrew Dodds (Partner) and Estelle Macleod (Professional Support Lawyer) have prepared a new checklist for leading legal publisher, Practical Law, covering the key points for corporate borrowers to consider when reviewing...

In the case of Pazur v Lexington Catering Services Limited , the Employment Appeal Tribunal has found that an employee, who was threatened with dismissal following his refusal to work for a client who had previously denied him a rest break, had been...

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that website operators incorporating third party plugins such as Facebook’s “Like” button can be joint controllers for the purposes of Data Protection law. Background ...

Part 1 – The Obstacles Faced This article is the first of several in which we consider the traditional approach to procuring construction contracts, why it might not always be suitable for the life sciences sector and what innovations are being...

In the recent case of Conisbee v Crossley Farms Ltd and others , an Employment Tribunal held that vegetarianism did not qualify for protection as a belief under the Equality Act 2010.   Facts The claimant, Mr Conisbee, was employed as a waiter for 5...

    Active ingredient (AI) An AI is a substance in a medicine which is biologically active, having a therapeutic effect of its own. This is in contrast to other ingredients which are pharmaceutically inactive or neutral.  Such other...

Website accessibility in the spotlight On 7 October, the US Supreme Court denied an appeal by Domino’s Pizza and ruled in favour of a blind claimant who had sued the chain when he was unable to order pizza off its website and mobile app in the US....

It can feel like barely a month goes by without a high street retailer proposing a CVA. The recent judgment on the challenge brought by landlords in respect of the Debenhams CVA highlights some major issues for landlords of retail premises, as well as...

Harking back to law school, we had a thirst for new black letter law. Section 136 of the Law of the Property Act 1925 kindly obliged. This lays down the conditions which need to be satisfied for an effective legal assignment of a chose in action (such as a...

On 23 September 2019 Thomas Cook Group Plc (together with various of its associated UK entities) entered into compulsory liquidation and its UK business ceased trading with immediate effect. Partners from KPMG and from AlixPartners have since been appointed...

Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) – which extend the patent life of a medicine for up to five years - are a valuable prize in the lucrative pharmaceutical market. It is not surprising, therefore, that the conditions for grant of an SPC under...

In Kasongo v Humanscale UK Ltd , the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that once a party has waived privilege over legal advice, it cannot cherry-pick which parts of the advice it wishes to disclose. Communications between a party and their legal advisers...

Background Often cases of disability discrimination are won or lost on the question of whether the employer knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the individual alleging disability discrimination was disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act...

In the case of Harpur Trust v Lesley Brazel v Unison the Court of Appeal overturned an Employment Tribunal’s decision that holiday entitlement should be pro-rated for ‘part-year’ workers. This case is significant because it is likely to...

We recently published an article entitled “ Crossing the Rubicon – can you guarantee that you understand the terms of your guaranteed obligations ? ”, providing an insight into the recent Rubicon case. This follow-on piece explores...