I cannot recommend Brian highly enough. He is a pragmatic realist who cuts through the legal minefield and provides good, relevant, and researched advice.

Richard Simmons

Brian was able to offer me prompt, objective and easy-to-understand business legal advice just when I needed it...

Wayne 'Web-Wise' Smallman

One of the sharpest, legal minds I've come across. If you're in business. You need Brian on YOUR side. Period.

Richard Simmons

Brian is a reputable guy. He responded quickly and efficiently to our request and advised us as to the most appropriate course of action.

Nick Haine, Aitch Em.

Brian is always very thorough and professional. Happy to recommend him.

Roger Price, Owner, AIMS Accountants

Brian has a fine business legal mind. You will find Brian approachable and open and an excellent resource for your business legal challenges.

Rod Sloane

I have contracted work on behalf of Brian. Because of his thorough preparation and proffesional and business like apporach we were able to produce the work quickly and with the minimum of hassle.

Bruce Bradley

As I live in Germany, Brian's ability to communicate via Skype was very handy. He provided effective and precise legal advice adapted to resolving my particular business-related situation. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity.

David Johnson

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IP and IT

A costly e-commerce mistake
E-commerce typo costs hotel dear
Are You Data Friendly?
Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to privacy with regard to...
Auction watch services catch eBay fraudsters
Auction watch service against eBay fraudsters
Avatars tackled for libel
Avatars tackled for libel
Beat the commute and regain the work-life balance
Flexible working
Blogging makes writer £70,000
Blogging makes profit.
Bogus online reviews face ban
fake reviews and sales to end
Boycott Wal-Mart website allowed
Boycott Walmart site allowed.
Burst bubbles for O2
Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement
Burst bubbles for comparative advertising-burst bubbles for O2
Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement
Confidential information heading out the door
Confidential information loss.
Confidential information heading out the door
Confidential information loss.
Court of Appeal allows franchisor to claim for loss of franchise business
The Court of Appeal has partly upheld an appeal by a claimant against the High Court's decision to dismiss his claim relating to the loss of his franchisees. The Court of Appeal held that the judge in the High Court was entitled, on the basis of...
Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs
Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs
Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements
Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements
Data Loss - What to Do
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious suggestions is to think...
Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised
Prison promised for data abusers
Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised
Data protection abuse-prison promised
Data Retention Regulations now in force
data regulations
Data protection law protects illegal downloaders
Illegal downloaders helped by data protection laws.
Dealing With Breach of Patent
When you discover that a business has breached your patent, what should you do? The answer to this question has two elements. The first is based on what you can do in law and the second is based on business strategy. Firstly, before picking a fight with...
Dealing With Subject Access Requests
The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold – including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it....
Design rights infringement-the grass is not always greener..
Mower design rights dispute
Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations
UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means are based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications . A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of ‘spam’ that...
Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites
Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites
Diversion of telephone numbers amount to unlawful interference with business
Telephone line diversion
Does the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 apply to paper records?
Data protection for paper records.
E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The Regulations do not just...
ENISA report highlights risks of social-networking sites
Dangers of online social networks
Email marketing abuse is rampant
Email abuse of marketing.
Fighting the phishers
Fighting the phishers
Framing-the legal issues
As you may know hyper-text mark up language (html) is the language of websites. It allows pages to be linked easily. In websites you often see hyper-links allowing you to jump to another site or to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of another webpage....
Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act
Franchisee and data protection-who owns the data?
Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act
Franchisee and data protection
Freedom of Information - What it Means in Practice
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 came fully into force on 1 January 2005 and it has serious implications for businesses doing business with the public sector. The reason for this is that because one of the aims of the Act is to engender greater...
Google in breach of copyright
Google in breach of copyright.
Gowers Review-the first concrete development-new copyright powers for Trading Standards Officers
Gowers review gives Trading Standards new powers.
High Court considers dispute over WORLD CUP WILLIE trade marks
FA beats Jules Rimet Cup to win 1966 mascot. The High Court has found that the Football Association (FA) could prevent applications by Jules Rimet Cup Ltd (JRCL) to register as trade marks WORLD CUP WILLIE (the mark), and a device mark combining the mark...
High Court implies terms into settlement of copyright infringement claim
Settlement duties inferred that those owed to court are owed to claimant also.
High Court orders website operator to disclose users' identities
Website defamers identity revealed
High Court refuses to imply assignment into software development contract
Software ownership would not be assigned
High Court rules ex-employees infringed database right by copying electronic files
ex-employees who copied and retained various documents belonging to their ex-employer, such as customer contact details and sales figures
Home business trends for 2007.
Home working trends for 2007.
Home workers have higher levels of health, wealth and happiness.
Happy home workers are more content.
House of Commons Justice Committee reports on protection of private data
data protection breach by HMRC
ICO brings successful prosecution for unlawful trade in personal information
Unlawful trade in personal information.
ICO issues press release on festive photographs at schools
School play photos are allowed.
ICO orders Leeds to disclose
ICO orders leeds Council to release questionnaire information.
ICO proposes additional powers and penalties under Data Protection Act
New powers for ICO wanted
ICO statement on proposed government communications database
ICO statement on proposed government communications database
IPO rejects Target's challenge to Music Choice's trade marks
IPO rejects Target Application
IR35 update
IR35 Dragonfly decision
Information Tribunal orders disclosure of draft government WMD dossier
FOIA on Iraq
Intel negligent in causing depression illness
Intel negligent for causing stress.
Intellectual Property: Who Owns It?
One of the biggest sources of disputes in industries based on innovation is a difference of opinion about who owns the intellectual property (IP) created in terms of designs, software, processes and systems. This is a general guide for businesses to the...
Is Your Website Disability-Friendly?
The British Standards Institution has published guidance on making sure that your website is disability-friendly. Legislation commencing with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) made it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a...
L'Oreal wins trade mark appeal
L’Oreal wins trade mark appeal The cosmetics giant won its appeal to the Court Of Appeal(CA) towards the end of last year when the court overturned an earlier decision by the High Court that had sent shockwaves-no pun...
Making your mark
Making your mark-trademark law changes
Misuse of weblog by advertiser
Weblog was misleading advertising.
More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube
More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube
Music in the workplace? Get a licence.
Workplace music needs a licence
New rules for company information
New information now mandatory on company websites
Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants
Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants
Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers
Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers
Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk
Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk
Online advertisers use online video gamers to boost sales.
Online gaming boost for advertisers.
Online shopping boosts retailers.
Growth in online selling brings Christmas cheer.
Open source software-know the risks
Liability for failings of open source software is a growing business risk for companies using “free” software developed by a collaboration of software programmers who do not in the end own the copyright. In the...
Open source software-software developer advised
open source and ownership of IP development
Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP&IT
Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP&IT
Patent Searches Improved
Checking for existing patents in force is easy (and free) if you use the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UKIPO) patent databases which are accessible online. The new databases replace the Patents Journal and are designed to make obtaining information...
Pre-company formation IP
Copyright ownership in new company
Pre-contract negotiations do not help deciding terms of agreement
Pre-contract negotiations
Protecting Your Design Rights
Protecting intellectual property has always been a complex area of law, but in one specific area things may be getting clearer. The Registered Designs Regulations 2001 include several protections for inventors of designs. If you have a new design which is...
Protecting website copyright
Protecting website copy
Registering a Trade Mark
Your business has its own unique brand and reputation and it is vital in a competitive marketplace to ensure that these are protected from unscrupulous third parties. Some business owners do not believe there is any point in registering their trading or...
Residential addresses are exempt
ICO and council win battle in FOIA tussle over residential addresses.
Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences
Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences
Skipton Financial Services in breach of data laws
ICO accepts undertaking from financial services company for breach of DPA
Spicy Spicy not so Nicey
Google sued for trade mark infringement
The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com
The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com
The Eight Data Protection Principles
Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. Here is a checklist. Data must be: fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; ...
The dangers of online portrayals
MySpace and other online dangers for job candidates.
The legal future is digital
The future of the UK legal profession is digital declares an EU Lawyers’ group. The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has adopted draft guidelines which means “ chip and pin” ID cards and digital signatures for lawyers are...
The power of social networking
Often in the news for the wrong reasons-grooming, online suicides, defamation etc etc-HSBC earlier this year succumbed to student lobbying via the internet when students began a protest blog on Facebook against overdraft interest charges that were...
Two cows, a cat and no hey diddle diddle
Domain name cannot be owned by pet/animal.
Unfair terms: reasonableness of exclusion clause
Business to business exclusion clauses
Vexatious requests for FOIA
Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.
Vexatious requests for FoIA
Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.
Watch out for bogus websites
Copying websites-criminals-real danger.
Wayne Rooney scores in domain name dispute
Wayne Rooney beats cybersquatter
Web content watch service
Webcontent watch for infringement
What to do When Your IT Doesn't Work
These days it is increasingly the case that when your IT doesn't work, neither does your business. Clearly, the best way to deal with IT problems is prevention, which means doing regular backups, proper systems maintenance, keeping anti-virus protection up...
illegal downloads
Illegal downloading blocked

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Latest News

Unauthorised Database Use to Cost Companies

Cookie Consent - Are You Prepared?

Are Your Website Images Legal?

Sophistication of Consumers Stymies Claim

Overall Impression Test Means Court Rejects Virgin's Claim

Money Saving Expert Wins Trade Mark Battle

Easier Access to Justice to Enforce Patent and Design Rights

Nuisance Callers and Spammers Face Increased Penalties

Court Condemns Unfair Product Comparison

How Do I Enforce My Copyright?

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