IP and IT

Are You Data Friendly
Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to privacy with regard to...
Data Loss - What to Do
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has recently issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious suggestions is to think...
Dealing With Breach of Patent
When you discover that a business has breached your patent, what should you do? The answer to this question has two elements. The first is based on what you can do in law and the second is based on business strategy. Firstly, before picking a fight with...
Dealing With Subject Access Requests
The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold – including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it....
Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations
UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means are based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of ‘spam’ that e-mail...
E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The Regulations do not just...
Email - Who Owns the Copyright?
Copyright is a right which exists without any specific steps having to be taken. It applies whenever there is a work created which contains original skill or labour. It applies to written material and that includes email, as a recent High Court ruling has...
Freedom of Information - What it Means in Practice
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 came fully into force on 1 January 2005 and it has serious implications for businesses doing business with the public sector. The reason for this is that because one of the aims of the Act is to engender greater...
Intellectual Property: Who Owns It
One of the biggest sources of disputes in industries based on innovation is a difference of opinion about who owns the intellectual property (IP) created in terms of designs, software, processes and systems. This is a general guide for businesses to the...
Is Your Website Disability-Friendly?
The British Standards Institution has published (at £30) new guidance on making sure that your website is disability-friendly. Under the Disability Discrimination Act , it is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by...
Patent Dispute Resolution Service
The UK Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Patent Office) offers a dispute resolution service which is aimed at preventing unnecessary litigation over patent disputes. The new opinions service allows anyone to request an opinion on any UK patent,...
Patent Searches Improved
Checking for existing patents in force is easy (and free) if you use the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UKIPO) patent databases which are accessible online. The new databases replace the Patents Journal and are designed to make obtaining information...
Protecting Your Design Rights
Protecting intellectual property has always been a complex area of law, but in one specific area things may be getting clearer. The Registered Designs Regulations 2001 include several protections for inventors of designs. If you have a new design which is...
The Eight Data Protection Principles
Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. Here is a checklist. Data must be: fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; ...
Website and Email Regulations
Since January 2007 it has been compulsory for certain business information to be present on corporate websites and emails or other electronic communications, including invoices and order forms. The regulations apply to all limited companies and limited...
What is Personal Data?
The definition of Personal Data is contained in s1 of the Data Protection Act 1991. Personal Data is data that relates to a living individual who can be identified from the data or from the data and other information which is in possession of, or likely to...
What to do When Your IT Doesn't Work
These days it is increasingly the case that when your IT doesn't work, neither does your business. Clearly, the best way to deal with IT problems is prevention, which means doing regular backups, proper systems maintenance, keeping anti-virus protection up...