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False Starts in Trade Mark InfringementPosted on Jul 26, 2012 by Dominic Dunnett  | 0 Comments With the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games a matter of hours away, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have sent an iron fist crashing down on unlikely criminals amongst the British Public for their infringement of their trade mark rights. With sponsorship a huge source of revenue and ultimately dictating the success of the Games, it is perhaps understandable that logos and related words are heavily protected beyond the usual trade mark laws and statutory instruments.Whilst businesses are being...

Litigating Libor: Could Swaps and Other Banking Agreements Based on Libor be Considered Void?Posted on Jul 18, 2012 by Iain McDougall  | 0 CommentsIn my last post I considered the possibility of various sorts of actions being raised as a result of the Libor fixing scandal. It seems that Libor fixing may have an interesting knock on effect to interest rate swap claims.The English Law Society Gazette has reported on an ongoing case brought in Birmingham Mercantile Court by Guardian Care Homes against Barclays in respect to the mis-selling of two interest rate swap agreements. Guardian claim they had been mis-sold...

Fines for Data Protection breach on the risePosted on Jul 03, 2012 by Andy Harris  | 0 CommentsIt was back in April 2010 that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) powers to impose fines for breaches of the Data Protection Act were increased from £5,000 to £500,000. Perhaps understandably there was no early rush to exploit this new power to its full, but it would appear that any honeymoon period is now well and truly over.This year has seen a major increase in the fines levied by the ICO for breaches of the Data Protection Act. In the past two months alone,...

 In a busy week following the admission by four major banks that mis-selling had taken place in relation to the sale of complex financial products to small businesses, Cat MacLean has been quoted in The Herald by Simon Bain and Ian Fraser on the issue once again.http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/scots-firms-due-millions-after-banks-mis-selling.18018406http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/the-wages-of-sin.18023332

FSA Initial Review of Mis-selling of swaps to SMEs to be published this FridayPosted on Jun 24, 2012 by Cat Maclean  | 0 CommentsFSA initial review of misselling of swaps to SMEs to be issued this Friday.A formal regulatory investigation into how thousands of small and medium-sized businesses came to be sold complex interest rate derivatives is likely to begin after the publication of FSA’s initial review on Friday 29th June. It is hoped that one of the consequences of the review may be that the banks will come under pressure to agree to a voluntary compensation scheme for victims.A report...