The Government’s Minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Wilcox, has announced the launch of a new guide for businesses on how to avoid falling foul of intellectual property laws. The guide, entitled ‘Preventing Infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) Rights in the Workplace’, is designed to give companies and their employees advice on IP laws and how …
The retail giant Marks & Spencer has been fined a total of £1 million after it was found that the company put customers and employees in danger by potentially exposing them to asbestos during a store refurbishment. The company received the fine after inspectors found that an expensive refurbishment of one of its stores in …
Schools in Sussex are reportedly facing a wave of lawsuits from parents and visitors after a number of slips, falls and other accidents were reported. In one claim, a school is being sued for £20,000 after someone walking on a carpeted corridor slipped on a sweet wrapper. In another, a pupil at a school in …
The owner of the Solicitors from Hell website, which was set up to name and shame solicitors who have allegedly given bad advice to customers, is facing a class action defamation lawsuit from more than 100,000 lawyers. Rick Kordowski, a self-employed graphic designer, has been successfully sued for libel as many as 16 times in …
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reportedly reopened the case on ‘toxic’ mortgage-backed securities by filing lawsuits against seventeen banks which sold them to government-supported mortgage organisations. The FHFA alleges that these banks, which included British institutions such as HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays, sold securities worth $41.5 billion to government-supported home …
The clothing brand of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is reportedly being sued by one of its long-standing business partners, the franchisee Hervia Limited. Hervia Limited, which runs a total of seven Vivienne Westwood stores in cities throughout the UK, is alleging breach of contract against the fashion designer’s brand. The company claims that last June, …
The owners of the micro-blogging platform Twitter have reportedly filed a lawsuit with the aim of acquiring the exclusive rights to the term “tweet”. This is despite the fact that the term was thought up and is currently possessed by someone else. The lawsuit relates to the advertising company Twittad, which first used the term …
A company based in Surrey has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after one of its marquee floors collapsed during a wedding, sending as many as 150 wedding guests falling to the floor. Block Scaffolding Limited was eventually fined £8,000 and ordered to pay more than £7,000 in court costs over the …
Microsoft is reportedly facing legal action over allegations that it tracks the location of its mobile users even if they have turned the tracking software off. The lawsuit, filed a couple of weeks ago in a Seattle federal court, accuses Microsoft of collecting data about its users and their whereabouts without their permission, especially as …
The Japanese chemical engineering and manufacturing firm Nichia Corporation has reportedly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Korean chip manufacturer Everlight. The lawsuit centres on one of Nichia’s patents, relating to the GT3528 series of white LED products manufactured by Everlight Electronics and sold by Chip One. Nichia’s patent is for the density of the …
