Insights: December 2018

Introduction It is the desire of almost every property investor to make their assets “sweat” by maximising the income available from them. One way investors achieve this is by granting leases of the airspace above their properties. Investors may, for example, lease the airspace to a developer who can help them improve the density of […]

The continued growth of the serviced office sector presents an investment opportunity for lenders providing issues surrounding perceived risk and valuation can be circumvented. The serviced office sector is evolving as businesses are increasingly demanding flexible, short-term office leases. Serviced offices are particularly attractive to SMEs and start-up businesses as they avoid a long-term commitment […]

Fladgate IP associate Ben Milloy was recently invited by the European Intellectual Property Review to discuss the decision in Frank Industries Pty Ltd v Nike Retail BV, stopping Nike’s LDNR ad campaign. Please click the link below to read the full article. Just Don’t Do It – Nike’s LDNR campaign halted by UK IP court […]

The recent case of Ghias v (1) Grill’O Xpress Ltd (2) Malik considered the compensation payable where a franchise brand is used after the termination of the franchise agreement without the permission of the brand owner. The claimant, Ghias, was the franchise brand owner of a group of fried chicken restaurants trading under the names […]

The European Commission has launched an initial probe into Amazon over how it uses third party sellers’ data. In the past weeks this has been closely followed by an antitrust probe from the German Federal Cartel Office. One of the reasons Amazon is unique as a retailer is that it operates as both a merchant, […]

On Thursday 6 December 2018 a policy paper was released by the Home Office providing further information regarding citizens’ rights post-Brexit, with specific detail given regarding the position in the event of a no-deal scenario. In the event of a deal scenario, under the terms of the draft Withdrawal Agreement, free movement effectively continues until […]

The national law, which governs a commercial contract and will be applied in the event that parties end up in a dispute over their obligations, is currently determined under the rules of the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008. Known as the Rome I Regulation, its rules stipulate that the courts of all EU member states will […]

The American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said “Once you make a decision the universe conspires to make it happen”.  Since he died in 1882 he can be forgiven for not knowing anything about the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, but in any event the Supreme Court has concluded in S Frances Limited v The […]

While debate continues in Parliament as to deal with the current blockage around the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement, back in the “real” world, businesses need to plan for the various outcomes currently being left in the hands of the politicians.

In Tuesday’s post (‘Brexit – A Legal Quagmire’), we noted that the Government had been held to be in contempt of Parliament in consequence of its refusal to publish the Brexit legal advice furnished by the Attorney General.  As a result, the Department for Exiting the European Union published that advice at midday on Wednesday […]

In a group action claim for data theft, the Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier decision that the Morrisons supermarket (Morrisons) was vicariously liable for the criminal actions of a rogue employee who publically released personal data about Morrisons’ staff, irrespective of the fact that Morrisons had taken what the court considered to have […]