Articles by ‘James Worrall’

Charlton Athletic have begun investigating after a form terminating the appointment as a director of Katrien Meire, the club’s chief executive, was posted on Companies House.

Trainee Natalie Pring, in her third seat, shares her advice for making your applications stand out from the crowd.

Did the “Vote Conservative” polling day email from The Daily Telegraph annoy you? It certainly upset the Information Commissioner’s Office.

A recent case should provide some food for thought among businesses seeking to protect their brand on an EU-wide basis using a Community Trade Mark (“CTM”). A Community Trade Mark is a trade mark which has been registered in the European Union as a whole (rather than on a national level within the EU). While registering a CTM may seem like a good idea (and great value for money compared with registering in multiple, single states), the outcome of Sofa Workshop v Sofaworks highlights some concerns for businesses which trade predominantly within a single member state.

If you breach a contract (like overstaying the permitted time in a car park), the test for whether you are bound to pay any charge imposed as a consequence of your breach has historically been whether the charge is a genuine pre-estimate of the loss the other party suffers (a liquidated damages clause) as a result of your breach, or a penalty. Liquidated damages clauses are generally enforceable whereas penalty clauses are not. The Supreme Court has recently shed more light on the issue in two recent cases and introduced a new, “legitimate interest test” for courts to consider when deciding whether a clause is an unenforceable penalty.

The government has now published guidance on new powers that the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will give to consumer law enforcers to help them remedy breaches of consumer protection law.

Is a brilliant, catchy name enough? James Worrall looks into what you need to bear in mind when naming your business.

The EU General Court has upheld the decision that there is a likelihood of confusion between the word SKYPE, the logo incorporating SKYPE (which the company had sought to register as a Community trade mark) and the existing Community trade mark, SKY.

It is often only when a dispute between them arises that shareholders come to look at their company’s articles of association. By this time, it is often too late to avoid a lengthy and costly battle to resolve the issue and the future of the company. Spending some time when relationships are good to discuss what will happen if things go wrong is time well spent. The company’s articles of association can be structured to provide some certainty when dealing with future disputes.

Our Corporate & Commercial team saw a significant increase in deal volume in 2014 and were delighted to act on a number of high value and high complexity transactions.

With more and more people using social media and cloud services, a whole new area of legal analysis is developing on the subject of what happens to a person’s digital assets following their death.

Naming your company needs careful consideration. It involves more than choosing a name that is aesthetically pleasing, or tells your customers what products or services you offer. The name you pick will become a key part of your business brand and so it is important to check that your proposed brand will not infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights. You also need to make sure that it does not breach any of the restrictions contained in the legislation governing company names.