Rival products sometimes bear similar names but, when considering whether or not that is likely to cause confusion, judges place themselves in the shoes of average consumers. The High Court did just that in resolving a trade mark dispute in the cosmetics...
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Although getting one's tax return right is to be recommended, there are many grey areas in tax and, when HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) make mistakes at their end, the effect can be to exonerate the taxpayer from liability for all or part of the tax, interest...
Planning decisions would be unpredictable and merely arbitrary if they were not based on carefully considered policies that have been subjected to public scrutiny. The High Court made that point in scotching £1.8 million plans for the expansion of a...
A recent case illustrates that decisions as to whether time spent by a worker who is on call counts as 'time work' for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation are highly dependent on the individual facts ( Frudd and Another v The...
Almost all businesses are insured against fire damage but, when the worst happens, insurers are understandably anxious to make sure they do not pay out any more than they have to. That situation provides fertile ground for dispute, which was certainly so...
There are hundreds of thousands of companies in tax havens and the true commercial value added by them is probably trivial, whereas the tax avoided or evaded runs into billions, so it is no wonder that governments are mounting an ever-increasing effort to...
Many successful businesses have experience of others seeking to ride on the coat-tails of their expensively established goodwill. However, as was shown by one High Court case , expert legal advice can help ensure that credit is only given where it is due. ...
Talk to a tenant and the lack of security of tenure is often brought up as a significant issue. For landlords, the inability easily to obtain possession of a tenanted property can often cause angst. There is little dispute that a good-quality, settled...
In July 2017, Matthew Taylor published his independent review on modern working practices, entitled 'Good Work' . The Government published its response to the review in February 2018 and launched consultations on how best to implement many of the...
The Employment Rights Act 1996 provides that all employees, whether part-time or full-time, are entitled by law to be given a written statement setting out the main particulars of their employment, provided their employment lasts for one month or more....
The trend towards full disclosure and openness continues unabated in business, and new regulations are being mooted which will increase the amount of disclosure required of UK-registered companies regarding their principals. Currently, even the smallest...
Gerry Rafferty famously claimed that 'if you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time', but a recent construction dispute shows that this is often far from true in legal disputes: often, if you get it wrong, there is no 'next time'. The facts were...
Employment disputes often arise because an employer does not consider that an employee's condition is a disability that qualifies them for protection under the Equality Act 2010 . It is therefore important that the definition of disability is understood and...
Many directors of companies are also trustees of the company pension scheme. Sometimes, their duties as a director and as a scheme trustee can be difficult to reconcile. In a recent case, a company alleged that two directors who were trustees of the firm's...
An attack by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on 'disguised remuneration' schemes, wherein a director of a company takes money out of the company in the form of a loan which is never intended to be repaid, has been widely reported. Such schemes were widely...
Businesses that have websites will be aware of the regulations that govern the use of 'cookies'. Recently, an opinion of the Advocate General of the European Union on questions referred to the Court of Justice by the Federal Court of Justice in Germany on...
It is very common for tenants who run up rent arrears to effectively be given a second chance by the courts when facing an application by the landlord to repossess the premises. Often, such applications are stayed subject to compliance with a revised payment...
Whether discrimination is subliminal or deliberate often makes little difference to the pain and distress it causes. The point was strikingly made by a case in which an openly gay primary school headteacher suffered the consequences of unconscious bias ( ...
Insolvencies are seldom happy periods for any of those involved and great care must be taken by those who deal with the insolvency proceedings to ensure they do their work in a way that correctly balances the interests of the creditors and the insolvent...
A recent survey by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) shows that only one in four UK businesses are aware of the penalties they could face under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 if they fail to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion by any person or...
Whether land is or is not within the curtilage of a building can be a decisive factor in many planning cases. The High Court considered the meaning of the word in ruling that a large hardstanding used for storing fencing materials did not fall within the...
Workplace disciplinary proceedings must be thorough, fair and impartial and a failure to meet those standards can be costly, both in reputational and financial terms. In a case on point, an engineer won almost £70,000 in compensation after the...
On 25 May 2018, the Data Protection Act 2018 came into force, incorporating the EU General Data Protection Regulation, ushering in a new era of personal data regulation in the UK. At the same time, the Data Protection (Charges and Information)...
Companies understandably may wish to provide financial as well as moral support to their directors if they are facing litigation. However, the issue of whether such contributions are tax deductible is far from straightforward and exercised the minds of...
Is the purchaser of a product sold under a trade mark entitled to take it apart and sell its component parts under the trade mark? The High Court considered that issue in resolving a dispute between rival manufacturers of bracelet charms. An Italian...