European businesses have always needed to tread carefully in relation to exporting personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This has never been more true than recently when data export became the biggest issue in data protection. The cat was set among the pigeons in October 2015 when the European Court of Justice (ECJ)invalidated …
Cyber security is a business imperative, and the reason is simple: the impact of a security breach can be severe. Any approach to cyber security must address each group that has access to the systems and data of a business, such as its customers, providers, affiliates and employees. This article is focused on the cyber …
Continue reading “Contracting for cyber security risks for customers”
It appears that the right time for a face lift is when the spirit needs a nuance of rejuvenation and the elements for doing so are all to hand. Similarly, as a brand is the face of an organisation the time for a ‘face lift’ of a business organisation is when opportunities present themselves and …
Continue reading “EU trade marks: when is the right time for a face lift?”
Warren Buffett famously said that: ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.’ If anything, that underestimates the speed at which events move in the digital age. Significant, and sometimes irreparable, damage can be done in the time it takes to post an ill-judged tweet. This article provides a …
Continue reading “If you can’t beat them, join them: how and when to take on social media”
Where an agreement has an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clause, it frequently has either a simple ADR clause or ‘escalation’ clauses (sometimes called ‘tiered’ or ‘stepped’ clauses). Then, where a commercial dispute arises, the parties to such an agreement are usually required to try to negotiate a settlement to the dispute. This could involve a …
Continue reading “Commercial dispute resolution clauses: be amicable or be friendly?”
As online advertising continues its rapid growth, online ad revenues become an ever more important opportunity (and/or threat) for many TMT businesses. How these growing markets are treated by antitrust agencies can be critical to strategy – either in terms of M&A or defending business models from the actions of other market participants. This article …
Continue reading “Antitrust treatment of online advertising markets”
The Digital Content Directive (the Directive) being pushed through by the Dutch EU presidency could have a significant impact on UK businesses supplying digital content. The Directive is part of the Digital Single Market Initiative. There are also draft directives on copyright law, geo-blocking and the online sale of goods. But the Digital Content Directive …
Continue reading “The Digital Content Directive: draft in haste and repent at leisure”
When a business has a dispute, it is important for it to properly evaluate its options in terms in how best to resolve the matter on a commercial basis. This should involve a review of any relevant contract(s) giving rise to the issues in dispute for any applicable choice of law and jurisdiction provisions, as …
‘One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”’ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland The above passage from …
Just what is it that you want to do? We wanna be free. We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. Loaded, Primal Scream It was a very different legal market in 2007 when Simon Harper and a group of colleagues at Berwin Leighton Paisner geared up for the launch of Lawyers On …