You may have heard that the EU Council has voted in favour of the Copyright Directive passed by the EU Parliament. Existing copyright law within the EU is complicated and varies from country to country. ...
We’ve been asked on several occasions in recent times by GP surgeries to give advice about having “green socks clauses” put into their partnership agreements. Such a clause allows the partners to expel one of their number from the partnership without any reason (or even because their fashion sense is questionable), and can be useful where a partner simply does not fit, even though they are not strictly at fault in any way....
Regardless of whether the UK is in or out of the EU, the Commonwealth is a superb natural market for business. And SMEs must ensure they capitalise on the labour and opportunities the Commonwealth countries provide....
Clarkslegal’ s corporate team enjoyed a bumper 2018, closing 32 transactions including mergers, acquisitions, disposals, financings and restructurings....
The recent Judgment of the High Court in Katara Hospitality (a company incorporated in Qatar) v (1) Gerard Guez and (2) Jacqueline Rose [2018] EWHC 3063 (“Katara Hospitality”) highlights the importance of ensuring the proper and valid execution of an instrument and also serves as a timely reminder of the importance of ensuring that the scope of an instrument is expressly set out if it is to be successfully relied upon....
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court decided in Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB Business Exchange 2018 that, where a written contract states that it can only be varied by observing specified formalities (for example by doing so in writing and signed by both parties), those formalities will – in most circumstances – need to be observed if the variation is to be effective. This decision has far-reaching consequences, because many contracts are varied informally by the parties during their life without checking the requirements, which can be fatal to enforcement if a dispute arises. ...
Clarkslegal is pleased to announce two new partner appointments to its Thames Valley office. Stuart Mullins joins the Corporate team and brings with him a wealth of experience acting for SMEs and corporates on mergers, acquisitions, banking, corporate law and commercial matters. Mark Izquierdo is appointed to head the Real Estate team in Reading and brings with him over 20 years’ experience in the property market. Mark specialises in investment and development work (residential and commercial) and is highly regarded for the transactional work he undertakes. Managing Partner, Monica Atwal, welcomes Stuart and Mark commenting: “We are delighted with the new appointments to key growth areas for our practice. The appointments demonstrate our continued commitment to the Thames Valley and underline our position at the forefront of commercial legal services in the region”...
The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 has now achieved parliamentary approval. This introduces additional reporting requirements for certain qualifying companies. Ahead of their inaugural year we have outlined some of the Regulations’ key provisions. ...
The doctrine of frustration in English Law provides very limited remedy and therefore, it is well established that parties should include a provision in a commercial agreement which governs issues of liability where a contract cannot be performed by virtue of unforeseen circumstances....
Last year, we wrote about Nestlé’s decade-plus efforts to achieve EU trade mark registration for the three-dimensional shape of its Kit Kat chocolate bar (certainly very distinctive here in the UK!), and setbacks in 2016 both with an adverse ruling from the EU General Court and with the UK High Court ruling against UK trade mark protection for the shape. We also noted that Nestlé’s nemesis in all of this has been Mondelēz International, a group whose brands include Cadbury....
It is good news that the Prime Minister is on a mission to emphasise the opportunities of more trade with Africa. ...
Recent weather and its impact on the food chain has seen quite a bit of media coverage over the last couple of months. However, the increased use and experiments with AI in all aspects of the food and beverage sector has also proved topical....
The use of AI software in providing audit and compliance roles, conversational interfaces (“chatbots”) and analytics to identify and match clients best positioned for particular investments is and has been in operation for some time in the commercial banking sector....
In light of the increasing number of retailers entering insolvency proceedings the spot light is again on the administration process. This article summarises the administration process and reflects on why it has received recent bad press....
Head of Corporate, Ashan Arif supported by Kirstin Parker, Caroline Lendrum and Martha Craven, advised BMW Group UK on its recent acquisition from H.R. Owen. Details of the transaction are confidential. ...
The Introduction of GDPR and the new Data Protection Act 2018 has already been the subject of many an article and discussion....
In a hugely significant judgment for businesses, the Supreme Court has tightened the flexibility traditionally enjoyed by contracting parties to vary the terms of their contracts (Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB Business Exchange 2018)....
Advances in technology have been one of the major causes of the significant impact that we have had on the resources and natural balance of the planet, specifically the energy that we use (think planes, trains, cars, air-conditioning and so on). ...
House of Fraser is the latest high-profile CVA in the retail sector but it’s not just the retail sector which has been inundated: the latest government statistics show that there has been an 85.5% increase in the use of CVAs.[1]...
The cryptowave is only going to build more momentum in the next 12 to 18 months. Just two weeks ago Barclays announced a partnership with a leading crypto company to facilitate payments to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, the most established crypto assets. This may reflect a trend of major financial institutions moving away from outright denunciation of cryptocurrencies to a cautious participation, marking a significant shift in their approach and making these assets much more accessible to new investors....