October 2008
Fri, Oct, 31 2008
Google should use its own search engine technology to identify typosquatters and cut off their advertising income, a US lawyer has said. He said that Google had the technical know-how to tell typosquatted domain names from genuine ones.
Thu, Oct, 30 2008
Companies have to provide a means of contact on their websites in addition to their postal and email addresses, the European Court of Justice has ruled. A telephone number, or a contact form that is answered within 60 minutes, were deemed acceptable.
Thu, Oct, 30 2008
The European Union's data protection authorities have published amended guidance on how companies can legally share customer and staff personal data with parts of the firm located outside the European Union.
Thu, Oct, 30 2008
A man has tried to overturn a conviction by claiming that he could not have infringed a trade mark because his copy of it was so poor. Gary Boulter has been refused permission to appeal his conviction of criminal trade mark infringement.
Thu, Oct, 30 2008
A scratch card operator has been ordered to pull its advertising because it did not have in stock the exact number of prizes claimed by its scratch cards. The advertising watchdog has criticised the company for stocking more prizes than advertised.
Wed, Oct, 29 2008
Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google have signed up to a privacy framework which orders them to challenge any government in the world over requests for private information if they believe the request breaks international human rights laws.
Wed, Oct, 29 2008
The UK's privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is currently pursuing 30 investigations into serious data security breaches, it said. In the past year 227 breaches have been reported to it.
Wed, Oct, 29 2008
A court has ruled that Yahoo! and Microsoft had an implied licence to copy and display pages from a website because the operator of that site knew how the search engines' opt-out procedures worked but chose to ignore them.
Wed, Oct, 29 2008
Google has paid $125 million to settle a copyright lawsuit with book publishers and will continue with its programme of scanning and making available millions of books.
Tue, Oct, 28 2008
The publisher of a link to defamatory material does not have any liability for that defamation, a Canadian court has ruled. Liability could only exist if the link publisher made any statement relating to the defamatory material itself, the court said.
Tue, Oct, 28 2008
An IT contractor who was part of a raid on a company, copied all of its electronic business records and locked staff out of computer systems, infringed copyright and database rights, the High Court has ruled.
Tue, Oct, 28 2008
The body that governs internet addresses has adopted a plan to battle domain tasting, a practice which businesses claim allows unscrupulous operators to earn millions trading on familiar brand names.
Tue, Oct, 28 2008
A Belgian internet service provider that had been ordered by the courts to filter out copyright-infringing material from its network has won a court reprieve. It will not have to pay the €750,000 in fines that have built up over the past year.
Tue, Oct, 28 2008
The European Patent Office has asked its ultimate legal authority to look at the European Patent Convention and issue advice on the patentability of software. The EPO said that such advice was necessary to ensure the uniform application of the EPC.
Mon, Oct, 27 2008
Safety concerns about computer screens and the physical strains of using a computer are two of the three most worried-about elements of working life, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said. Stress due to overwork is the third.
Fri, Oct, 24 2008
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said that a single database of phone and internet usage records would undermine the "British way of life". The privacy watchdog has said that it will scrutinise Government plans for storing that information.
Thu, Oct, 23 2008
American Airlines is suing search engine company Yahoo! over the use of its trade marks to trigger adverts for competing airlines. The company has previously settled a similar case with Google.
Thu, Oct, 23 2008
Temporary workers will receive many of the same protections as permanent staff because of the European Parliament's approval of a new European Union Directive. EU institutions have battled for six years over the issue.
Thu, Oct, 23 2008
Copyright laws and the way that media and telecoms services are regulated could be due for change under a review the Government will conduct into the UK's digital economy. Ex-chief executive of Ofcom Stephen Carter will conduct the review.
Thu, Oct, 23 2008
Proposals to allow non-Lloyd's brokers direct access to the Lloyd's insurance market were approved this week by a committee of MPs.
Thu, Oct, 23 2008
There has been a mixed reaction to proposals for the reform of business insurance contract law, according to a summary of responses published by the English and Scottish Law Commissions this month.
Wed, Oct, 22 2008
Supermarket the Co-op has proposed the largest divestiture of business assets in UK competition history as part of a bid to have its buyout of Somerfield approved by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
Wed, Oct, 22 2008
Data protection authorities from all over the world have agreed to call for legislation specifically limiting the collection and use of children's personal data.
Wed, Oct, 22 2008
Any interference with plans to extend flexible working rights to the parents of children over six will not help companies but will damage competitiveness and business interests, according to personnel workers.
Wed, Oct, 22 2008
A newspaper and advertiser have been told to ensure that any offer advertised as being free has a genuinely free route to entry. Advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told the companies not to repeat a rule-breaking ad.
Tue, Oct, 21 2008
Executives and managers could face two year jail terms for health and safety breaches under legislation just passed by Parliament. The new law will come into force in January.
Tue, Oct, 21 2008
The European Union's Data Retention Directive was not procedurally flawed and should not be repealed, an Advocate General to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said. Ireland's argument that the law was wrongly adopted has been rejected.
Tue, Oct, 21 2008
Social networking sites are not permitted to store information about people's use of the sites beyond the duration of a particular session in Germany, according to a panel of all that country's data protection officials.
Mon, Oct, 20 2008
The inventor of a car door latch was not entitled to walk away from a commercial agreement in the way that he did, the High Court has ruled. The terms of the deal had been broken at one point, but not when the inventor ended the agreement, the court said.
Mon, Oct, 20 2008
The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) has given its backing to an international group of prosecutors in a bid to help fight cross-border intellectual property related crime.
Thu, Oct, 16 2008
Two men have been told that they cannot rely on their right to silence to refuse to give British police a computer password.
Thu, Oct, 16 2008
Organisations involved in Employment Tribunals will have their identities published after a ruling by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ruling reinstates a practice that was discontinued in 2001.
Thu, Oct, 16 2008
The Government has postponed planned legislation which could create a giant central database containing records of every email, web session and phone call made in the UK.
Wed, Oct, 15 2008
The European Commission has admitted that its rules on e-money have stifled the market for virtual currencies over the past eight years and has proposed a revised set of regulations that it hopes will stimulate demand.
Wed, Oct, 15 2008
T-Mobile has been told to stop publishing adverts for its mobile broadband service which suggest that mobile broadband is as good a service as that given by fixed line connections.
Wed, Oct, 15 2008
Telecoms regulator Ofcom has backtracked on its commitment to order that all personal numbers using the prefix 070 be moved to the 06 number range.
Wed, Oct, 15 2008
The family behind a high profile scheme to sell a house via 46,000 tickets costing £25 each has postponed tomorrow's planned draw for the winning ticket. The scheme is being probed by gambling regulator The Gambling Commission.
Tue, Oct, 14 2008
A vodka maker is suing a radio station over its use of the name 'absolute'. Virgin Radio was recently renamed Absolute Radio, but V&S Vin & Spirit, which is behind vodka brand Absolut, claims that the use of the name is a trade mark violation.
Tue, Oct, 14 2008
A German court has ruled that website operators are allowed to store the internet protocol (IP) addresses of their visitors without violating data protection legislation. Without additional information, IP addresses do not count as personal data, it said.
Tue, Oct, 14 2008
A committee of MEPs last week approved a draft text for Solvency II, the new pan-European solvency regime for insurers and reinsurers, but not before making significant changes to the proposals for insurance multinationals.
Tue, Oct, 14 2008
A new law has been created in the US which toughens penalties for infringements of intellectual property law. The law will also create an intellectual property (IP) enforcement co-ordinator.
Tue, Oct, 14 2008
Google has lost two German court cases over copyright in images displayed as thumbnails in search results. German courts ruled in both cases that Google's display of miniature versions of pictures without permission infringed copyright in the originals.
Mon, Oct, 13 2008
The Gambling Commission has warned home owners that they could be breaking the law if they operate internet-based schemes to offload unsold houses. The draw for the most famous of the schemes will take place on Thursday.
Mon, Oct, 13 2008
Companies' wireless networks are less secure than previously believed because of software made in Russia that reportedly speeds up network hacking by 10,000%. Companies may no longer be able to rely on standard security, experts have said.
Mon, Oct, 13 2008
The Council of Europe aims to increase the scope of a convention that affects the regulation of TV broadcasting to include video on-demand services and some online video. The changes will match those already made by the European Union.
Fri, Oct, 10 2008
A judgment by Europe’s highest court has strengthened the rights of database creators to protect their work from being used by third parties without permission. The database right protects against more than just copying and pasting, it ruled.
Fri, Oct, 10 2008
The Court of Appeal has refused to accept the UK Intellectual Property Office's rejection of a patent for a piece of software in a move which experts say will open the door for more software patents in the UK.
Fri, Oct, 10 2008
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has settled a corruption case with a major construction firm for £2.25 million and will not be prosecuting the firm in what one expert described as a "seismic shift" in UK corruption prosecution.
Thu, Oct, 9 2008
The European Commission wants to create an over-arching consumer protection law which it claims will cut costs and red tape for internet retailers. The proposed Consumer Rights Directive would replace four existing EU Directives.
Thu, Oct, 9 2008
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) broke insurance industry rules when it sold 210,000 insurance policies over the phone in connection with personal loans, financial regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said.
Tue, Oct, 7 2008
Nearly half of shops selling electrical goods are not supplying consumers with enough information about their extended warranty schemes, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said.
Tue, Oct, 7 2008
Retailers should ensure that digital money-off coupons are unique and linked to individual customers to avoid the losses that mass duplication of the vouchers could bring, the sales promotion industry body has said.
Tue, Oct, 7 2008
Motor racing chief Max Mosley has applied to the European Court of Human Rights in an attempt to reform the UK's privacy laws. He wants editors to be forced to tell people when they are about to publish stories about them.
Mon, Oct, 6 2008
Website privacy policies take on average 10 minutes to read and sometimes run into thousands of words, researchers have found. While some are short, others would take over half an hour to read, researchers said.
Mon, Oct, 6 2008
OPINION: In the current economic downturn, share plans might seem less than attractive as a way for companies to motivate their staff. But despite a weak stock market, share plans can be made to work, without having to pay cash incentives.
Mon, Oct, 6 2008
Sienna Miller is suing the News of the World over the publication of pictures of her topless on holiday with her then-boyfriend, the married oil heir Balthazar Getty.
Mon, Oct, 6 2008
A panel of US federal judges has rejected calls by music publishers to raise the royalty rates on music downloads. Digital music sellers like Apple and Amazon.com will continue to pay publishers nine cents per song downloaded.
Fri, Oct, 3 2008
A man has been arrested and charged over a blog post detailing the imaginary kidnap, torture and murder of the members of Girls Aloud. He has been charged with the publishing of an obscene article, police said.
Fri, Oct, 3 2008
Ofcom has fined Britain's biggest credit card company Barclaycard £50,000 over silent phone calls made on behalf of the company. The telecoms regulator called Barclaycard's behaviour "the most serious" silent calls case it had ever investigated.
Fri, Oct, 3 2008
Insurers must start planning for 2012, when the new European solvency regime known as Solvency II comes into force, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has warned.
Fri, Oct, 3 2008
Retailers will have to change the wireless security they use for payment systems from April of next year. The body which sets the requirements for such systems has announced a mandatory improvement in wireless security.
Thu, Oct, 2 2008
A new specialist police unit has been created to tackle crime carried out on the internet. The Government said that it would spend £7 million establishing the Police Central E-crime Unit (PceU) in London.
Thu, Oct, 2 2008
Good privacy laws make any breach of the principles of net neutrality unlawful, a US law professor has said. In the US, that means that wiretap laws are likely to make any prioritising of traffic illegal, said the expert.
Thu, Oct, 2 2008
Contacting a supplier to discuss how to cope with difficult market conditions could land businesses in trouble, a competition law expert has warned. Asking a supplier to encourage a rival to stop discounting prices so aggressively could break the law.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
A total of 59 laws came into force across the UK today, changing regimes for running a company paying staff and more. We have summarised the ones that we think are most likely to affect OUT-LAW readers.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
A new European Union Directive requiring companies to recycle the batteries they sell has come into full force but only seven out of the EU's 27 countries have complied with it.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
The patent offices of Europe and the US have begun an experiment designed to increase the speed at which patent applications from one area are processed in the other.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
UK banking losses due to fraud in the first half of 2008 hit £301.7m compared to £263.6m in the same period last year, according to the latest figures from UK banking association APACS.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
US movie studios on Tuesday sued RealNetworks to stop it from distributing software that lets people copy DVDs onto their computers.
Wed, Oct, 1 2008
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday promised further action on the sale of single premium payment protection products after its most recent research showed firms are still falling far short of the required standards.
