Are there any legal issues which might prevent cloud computing from being the new future of areas such as bioinformatics?
IT/Telecoms in the news
Selling IT to the public sector is about to get tougher – what rights does the vendor have?
It is clear that with the new coalition government in place those days are now over, and things are going to get tough for those wanting to sell IT solutions into the public sector. As an IT vendor how can you make sure you are not unfairly treated?
Are social networks and European data privacy laws incompatible?
Facebook is in trouble over privacy again, and seems only to have itself to blame.
What if your licensor goes bust?
There are few businesses around that do not rely to some extent on rights which are licensed to them by others. These may be rights to use software, to publish or republish literary or artistic works or to use someone else’s trademark in order to help sell goods and services. What happens if the person who has licensed you these rights goes into insolvency?
European Court gives Google adwords a bloody nose
In a much anticipated judgement the European Court of Justice has today ruled in a series of linked cases involving objections by trademark holders including Louis Vuitton (LV) against the use of adwords on Google by competitors and alleged counterfeiters. The decision will have major impact on how the adwords system can be used in particular, and on wider Internet advertising practices in general.
Got a letter of intent, memorandum of understanding, heads of agreement? OK – so what does it mean?
Terms such as “letter of intent”, “memorandum of understanding” and “heads of agreement” are often bandied about in business on documents which are intended somehow to fall short of a “full” contract, but what exactly are they and, in particular, what effect do they have if the parties subsequently fall out?
The liability of IT vendors – the sky’s the limit
No IT vendor with any sense would enter into a major contract that did not contain limitations on its liability if the project went wrong. In recent years the courts have been more inclined to uphold the validity of limitation clauses, and as a result unhappy customers in a number of recent cases have sought to sue their IT vendors not only for breach of contract but also for “fraudulent misrepresentation”. Why? Because under English law a limitation clause, however reasonable, cannot be effective to limit liability for fraud.