Viewpoints - Harbottle and Lewis

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23 January 2025

Thatchers leaves Aldi bitter following successful lemon cider trade mark infringement appeal

In a watershed decision from the Court of Appeal, Aldi’s lemon cider has been found to infringe Thatchers’ trade marks for its own Cloudy Lemon cider. Thatchers launched their ‘Cloudy Lemon’ cider (the Thatchers Lemon Cider) in 2020 and, in…

21 January 2025

Alleged ‘Smear Campaigns’ under the legal spotlight in the UK and USA

A recent UK judgment and a number of US court claims have referenced allegations of sophisticated ‘smear campaigns’ being conducted against the claimants by business or personal rivals. Last week saw judgment on a preliminary issue in Marinakis v Karipidis…

21 January 2025

Trump saves TikTok: Influencing the influencers

President Trump will reverse the TikTok ban within hours of being sworn in as President of the United States, as he promises to find a solution for the 170 million TikTok users in the United States (US). The US ban…

13 January 2025

Meta to end third party fact checking

Mark Zuckerberg‘s announcement that Meta will end its third party fact checking programme is the latest threat to the integrity of online data. We live in a world where misinformation can spread quickly, and where bots and targeted posts can…

12 December 2024

The UK’s data protection regulator publishes a new code of conduct for UK private investigators and litigation services

The UK’s data protection regulator publishes a new code of conduct for UK private investigators and litigation services On 13 November, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) approved and published a new sector-owned code of conduct – the Association of British…

15 November 2024

Unable to row the distance: No copyright in a rowing machine as a work of artistic craftsmanship (WaterRower v Liking)

After more than one year since trial, the long-awaited decision on whether a particular type of rowing machine is capable of copyright protection in England & Wales as a work of artistic craftsmanship came out earlier this week. The decision…

13 November 2024

The wait is over – Sky v SkyKick decision handed down today

After many years of proceedings, the long-waited trade mark case Sky v SkyKick has finally reached a decision at the Supreme Court today. The Judgment contains clear direction on when a trade mark has been registered in bad faith. Impact…

30 October 2024

Autumn Budget 2024: Headlines

Labour’s first Budget hopes to raise UK taxes by £40 billion. Highlights are as follows: Income Tax No increase. Threshold freeze will end from April 2028. National Insurance Contributions (NICs) No change to employee NICs. Threshold freeze will end from…

28 October 2024

The Final Word

We have all, at one time or another, walked away from an argument and all too late thought of the crushing blow we should have delivered; a comeback there would have been no coming back from. If only we had…

24 October 2024

The UK’s new Data (Use and Access) Bill has been introduced into Parliament

On 23 October, the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) introduced the new Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUA Bill) to Parliament. This featured in the King’s Speech on 17 July, when the new UK Labour Government announced…