What are virtual currencies? European Banking Authority (EBA) regards virtual currencies as being a digital representation of value that is neither issued by a central bank or a public authority nor necessarily attached to a regular currency, but is accepted by natural or legal persons as a means of payment, and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically. The leading …
VAT Reverse Charge Mechanism to apply to Certain Wholesale Supplies from 1st February 2016 Certain UK clients have asked me to explain the VAT rule changes for UK wholesale telecommunications supplies, and hopefully this blog will answer those questions. From 1st February 2016, providers of wholesale telecommunications services in the UK will no longer apply VAT to supplies to other …
Personal Use by Employees of Employer Systems: Mr Bogdan Barbulescu vs the State of Romania Mr Barbulescu used certain business systems to send personal messages in breach of his employer’s stated Policy in this regard. The Employer monitored employee communications to ensure compliance with its Policy. Mr Barbelescu was found to have been in breach of the Policy and was …
New EU General Data Protection Regulation Territorial Scope and New Personal Data Definition A number of our non-EU clients have expressed considerable alarm about the GDPR, probably due to the volume of articles being generated in the technology industry press but be aware that whilst the final text of the GDPR is unlikely to be widely different from the draft …
On 16th January 2016, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published a useful advice note on IT security advice for small businesses, called “A Practical Guide to IT Security”, a copy of which can be found here. It is well worth a read for all owners and senior managers of small businesses, however tech savvy they may be as individuals …
Introduction Restrictive covenants are clauses, which have the effect of preventing one party to a contract from doing something, which they would otherwise be perfectly entitled to do. In this blog, I am going to focus on the restrictive covenants known as “restraint of trade” clauses, which are typically inserted into employment contracts or contractor service agreements. Restraint of trade …
As lawyers, we often tell clients that trademark registration is important to protect good will in their business. After yesterday’s decision from the IP Enterprise Court, in the case of Caspian Pizza Ltd and others v Shah and another (2015) EWHC 3567 (IPEC), 9th December 2015, we should probably also now add “and do it quickly”. I could not resist …
As the squeeze tightens on the State’s purse strings, we thought that the day of the UK Chancellor’s Spending Review was a good day to smile sweetly and say that in a world where charities almost certainly have insufficient resources to pick up the burden of much that was once provided by the State, the Government has at least proposed …
Why not just give in when a customer or supplier wants a contract to be governed by the laws of the country they are based in? Well it might work and it might not, and whilst this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few things to think about….. 1. The Biggest Show in Town Problem If you are …
If your business has an intellectual property registration in the UK, you may have received letters from one or more “agencies” with a name, which looks surprisingly similar to the “UK Intellectual Property Office” telling you that your registration is about to expire and that you need to pay money to avoid your registration being cancelled. The letters are not …
