After an eight-year legal battle, the European Court of Justice has confirmed that the ‘Gold Bunny’ packaging used by chocolatier Lindt is insufficiently distinct to warrant registration as a three-dimensional trade mark. Lindt sought to...
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Mistakes are mistakes, but in law, when a legal claim is made, the fact that a mistake was made is only the first step to obtaining damages. The second step is to prove that a loss has been suffered. This point was at the core of a recent decision by the...
With costs rising and government funding being cut, councils are increasingly seeking to make savings in their care budgets – and for elderly disabled people, this can mean substantial increases in the contributions they are required to make towards...
It is generally considered that organisations which have charitable objects (such as the relief of poverty) as their core purpose will qualify to be treated as charities. A recent tax case shows the limits that apply to this assumption, however. The case...
When the developer of a block of flats (who owned the freehold) decided to relocate the parking spaces allocated to the tenants so that it could build another block of flats on the car park, the tenants took a dim view of the proposal – especially when...
The collapse of Farepak in 2006 received widespread press coverage, with thousands of families facing the loss of their ‘Christmas Club’ savings. In all, more than 100,000 investors lost a total of more than £37 million. The company...
When a Yorkshire farmer disinherited his son and left the whole of his estate to his daughter, the son challenged the will in court. The son had worked with his father for many years and contended that his father had promised that he would inherit his...
The general rule that in litigation the loser pays the winner’s legal costs does not always apply, as a successful claimant found recently . The claim was made in the wake of defamatory articles, found in a number of newspapers, relating to the...
The World Intellectual Property Organisation has agreed a new international treaty , which, when ratified by 30 or more of the 48 signatory countries, will significantly enhance the rights of performers to control the distribution of their work. The treaty...
Contrary to popular belief, there is no ‘right to light’ as such under English law, but where light has been enjoyed continuously and without interruption for 20 years, an ‘easement’ (a legal right attaching to land) will arise, which...
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