Posts under ‘commercial’

The IPKAT reported recently that the BBC is preparing to take the publishing company HarperCollins to court over a book that reveals the identity of the Stig from Top Gear. The Stig never removes his helmet on the show, concealing his identity. The identity of the Stig’s character has been kept a secret for the [...]

In previous posts I have commented both on the ‘End of Lawyers?’- a book by Richard Susskind and also on the Legal Services Act, which are two commonly discussed items by those interested in the UK law business landscape. In the ‘End of Lawyers? The Legal Hybrid is already here‘  my message was I already [...]

Along with the introduction of digital music purchases, came the rise of DRM restricting how it could be used.  With traditional media, music was generally freely playable and transferable, but over the past decade we have seen more and more restrictions imposed on consumers, controlling which portable device music is played on, how many computers [...]

In their article earlier this year, the Ipkat drew attention to the fact that there is a marked separation between the worlds of trade marks and branding. More often than not the two are not addressed collectively, but are rather dealt with by completely separate teams, or even distinct organisations.  A creative team might deal [...]

Since the release of the latest generation of consoles, the gaming industry has undergone considerable growth.  No longer seen as a niche, antisocial pastime, the marketing strategies and innovative approaches to game design employed by companies like Nintendo have brought Gaming into the mainstream.  Platforms such as the Wii, and the DS, have spawned a [...]

In view of the controversy surrounding not only its contents, but the way in which it was passed, we had written on the recent Digital Economy Act in an earlier post.  In this post I would like to focus not on the broader policy considerations that have been dominating discussion, but on some of the [...]

In business, as in life, we are constantly assessing and managing risks.  One of the most important risks to avoid is that of choosing your brand name without doing some very careful searches.  I know this from personal experience. When I started up my law firm I named it A1 Law, having done a brief [...]

Should fan fiction be permitted by copyright law?  Roland Barthes, a literary theorist set out in his essay ‘Death of the Author’ his belief that once a text has been written by an author it no longer belongs to them, but to those who read it.  As he puts it: “to give a text an [...]

Some time ago Coca Cola registered COKE as a trade mark for soft drinks both in the UK and USA. So, I was interested to hear from my daughter that the term ‘coke’ is commonly used as a general reference to fizzy drinks throughout the southern parts of America. On looking into this it seems [...]

If you are starting up in business, getting the right legal help can be a key to success – especially if you are a creative business.  An effective Intellectual Property strategy to properly structure your IP rights from the beginning really does make a difference to the value of your business as it grows. I [...]