Each year when #BlackFriday and the Christmas sales period approaches, retailers (and accordingly suppliers) are looking forward to their busiest time of the year and a return on the R&D work throughout the year. For fashion-led industries such as jewellery, seasonal variations and being ‘on trend’ can make a big difference: get it right and your product is the must have this Christmas and you’ll be ‘quids in’, but get it wrong and you’ll be in potential financial difficulty. So design is key.

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There is no denying that in recent times the headlines relating to the London property market have been less than positive.

Headline after headline describe the capital’s property market as ‘fragile’ and ‘stagnant’ – and yet it’s housing market is often considered the envy of every other major city in the UK (and the world). So what exactly is going on with the London property market?

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You’ve done the hard work. You’ve spent years building a successful business and have reached the stage where you are looking for a potential exit. To assist with a smooth sale process, we recommend conducting a review of the company’s history to identify any areas that may be detrimental to the transaction and cause concern to a potential buyer. A very common issue that can delay a sale or potentially cause it to abort are inconsistencies with the company’s filing history, statutory registers and share capital.

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The impact of the latest High Court decision, Discovery (Northampton) Limited and others v Debenhams Retail Limited [2019] EWHC 2441 (Ch)

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Bristol is a city that prides itself on being able to combine its strong ethical compass with commercial ambition. So when the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) recently issued a challenge to the government (whatever its complexion post 12 December) to adopt and implement a new, national strategy for employee ownership, we thought that Bristol would be brilliantly placed to take advantage.

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Have you ever become aware that an employee has done something inappropriate on social media? Maybe they posted something which they ought to have thought twice about, or maybe you have discovered an entirely inappropriate online conversation? Determining when it is possible to discipline an employee for their use of social media can be a tricky area.

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Copycat products are relatively common. Supermarkets’ own products often seem to be designed to be mistaken for popular brands; what, if anything, can the owners of the ‘original’ intellectual property, do about it? A recent case looked into copyright in a product that changes appearance with use – a makeup powder.

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The recent judgment in Stobart Group Ltd & Stobart Rail Ltd v Stobart & Tinkler [2019] EWCA Civ 1376 serves as a timely reminder to buyers of the importance of providing effective notice in relation to claims under M&A transaction documents.

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We are often used to hearing sayings like “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” or “like father like son/like mother like daughter”. These phrases are casually used to suggest that a child’s actions are not far off from the actions of their parent, or that a parent is wholly responsible for the behaviour of their child.

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Earlier this year, there were reports that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) were deploying practices to further frustrate the review of draft inspection reports. It seems that the problem persists. Mei-Ling Huang, partner in our specialist Health & Social Care team, explains:

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With UK’s political scene firmly in pre-election mode, lots of key questions on Brexit remain unanswered, the future immigration system being one of them. Should the polls prove true and the Conservative party form a majority government in December, it is likely that the Home Office will start announcing specific policies based on the much discussed Australian points-based system (“PBS”).

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Recent weeks have in the news been dominated by Brexit, the withdrawal agreement, the suspension of Parliament and in the end the Queen’s speech.

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