Competition Law

• OFT looks to ban directors if they breach competition law…...
• ECJ rules that Austrian price-fixing law constitutes an unjustifiable restriction on the free movement of goods …...
• European Commission fines Intel a record-breaking €1.06billion for anti-competitive practices…...

Contracts

• Court decides what constitutes ‘reasonable notice’ in a distribution arrangement - Jackson Distribution v Tum Yeto, High Court…...
• Failure to make exclusion clause wording work under English law rather than US law proves costly – KG Bominflot v Petroplus, High Court…...
• Court of Appeal upholds contractual rate of interest of 15% for late payment – Taiwan Scot v The Masters Golf Company, Court of Appeal…...

Copyright and Database Rights

• France eventually passes ‘three strikes’ net piracy law…...
• European Commission outlines plans to have single copyright licensing law across the EU…...
• Computer Programs Directive updated…...

Cybercrime and Security

• 50% increase in number of ‘zombie’ computers detected…...
• eBay fraudster to pay over £100,000 in compensation or face an extra 12 months behind bars…...

Data Protection / Privacy / Confidentiality

• Data Protection Directive will not suffice in the long term says ICO report…...
• High Court refuses to allow Data Protection Act to be used where other legal claims fail – Quinton v Peirce, High Court…...
• Yet another serious data loss – this time it’s over 100,000 people’s pensions records…...
• Information Commissioner reads the riot act to NHS over ‘inexcusable’ data losses…...
• Recommendations on RFID technology published by European Commission…...
• Mere taking of police photographs infringed privacy rights in light of surrounding circumstances – Wood v Commission of Police for the Metropolis, Court of Appeal…...
• Court refuses to stop intrusive press reporting in paternity case already widely available on the Internet - East Sussex County Council, Maisie Stedman, Chantelle Stedman and Alfie Patten, High Court ...
• Net closes around mosquito product consultant’s use of information in breach of confidence – Vestergaard Frandsen v Bestnet Europe, High Court…...
• Organisations should guard against disclosing employee and customer information to ‘blaggers’ says ICO…...

Domain Names

• WIPO allows top English football clubs to bring group action in domain name dispute…...

Gambling

• Controversial house competition proceeds, while Gambling Commission remains tight-lipped on house draws generally…...

IT and Internet Use

• Three-year-old ‘wins’ £7,600 digger in online auction as parents slept…...
• Web sites retaining photos after users had ‘deleted’ them…...
• A quarter still not shopping online because of security concerns…...
• Seven million UK Internet users engage in illegal file-sharing…...

Jurisdiction

• Draft Regulations implementing European Services Directive published…...

Misleading Advertising

• CAP and BCAP consult on reforms to advertising codes of practice…...
• ASA says data aggregation sites must update their records every day and show sustained trend if they want to make statements about other rival sites…...

Patents

• IP Office introduces accelerated process for ‘green’ patent applications…...
• Software patent for remote programming of mobile phones approved by the UK IP Office…...

Trade Marks and Passing Off

• eBay not liable for trade mark infringement of its users, but use in sponsored links needs a further ruling – L’Oréal v eBay, High Court…...
• Not all in the garden is rosy, as M&S vs Interflora spat leads to further reference to European Court of Justice over sponsored keywords – Interflora v Marks & Spencer, High Court…...
• Changes to Google’s AdWords policy may lead to further trade mark disputes…...
• Nasdaq name not registrable because it would take unfair advantage of the more famous use of the brand – Antartica v OHIM, European Court of Justice…...