The future for stem cell research in the UK is at a critical point. The UK Government is overhauling the seventeen year old regulatory regime governing use of embryonic stem cells, and, in tandem under the existing law, the UK’s regulatory body has been considering whether to permit research using so-called ‘hybrid’ or ‘chimeric’ embryos.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) made a splash with the publication earlier this year of its paper ‘Algorithms: How they can reduce competition and harm consumers'.

Settlement and licensing agreements have the potential to give rise to competition law risk

On 20th January 2021, the Royal Academy of Engineering's Enterprise Hub published an excellent analysis of the UK's academic spinout landscape.

Amongst the bad news that took up a lot of headlines last year, there was one story at the end of last year that caused a lot of excitement in the life sciences sector.

The draft SI will amend the UK's Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (UK MDR) to introduce the new PMS rules.

Two recent court decisions highlighted perceived shortcomings of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (the "Act"), which may finally be remedied later this year.

The Police and Justice Act 2006, which received royal assent on 8 November, modifies the Computer Misuse Act 1990 making it an offence to launch a denial of service attack in the UK and increasing the penalties for offences committed under the CMA.

A recent appeal from the UK Trade Marks Registry to the High Court has emphasised the need for trade mark owners to file evidence correctly, particularly when seeking to establish a reputation in a mark.

It is often said that copyright protects the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. The Court of Appeal applied this principle in deciding a recent copyright infringement action over computer games.

The Information Tribunal recently clarified the scope of the “prejudice to commercial interests” exemption to public authorities’ duty to disclose information to the public under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FoIA”). The decision offers little comfort for private sector contractors concerned that their public sector customers could be obliged by FoIA to release sensitive information provided by contractors.

This year's budget has seen relatively minor changes to the tax treatment of employees. The most significant changes are: Home Computing Initiative, Loan of mobile phones to employees, Childcare Vouchers...

The DNA sequencing giant Illumina is locked in a battle with the European Commission (EC) over its $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail.

In the first judgment of its kind, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘CJEU') has annulled a Commission decision to accept commitments.

On 8 July 2021 the European Commission fined BMW and the Volkswagen group €875 million for colluding to restrict the use of novel technology to clean diesel emissions (see the Commission press release here).

European Commission proposes to ease the regulatory burden for gene-edited plants. But when will it become law, and in what form?

Firms of auditors around the country will be breathing a huge sigh of relief next month. From 6 April, under new rules introduced by the Companies Act 2006, auditors will be able to limit their liability for negligence, default, breach of duty or breach of trust, in relation to audit work carried out for their corporate clients.

Force majeure clauses have come into sharp focus recently. These clauses are intended to govern what happens if an event beyond the control of the parties affects the performance of a contract.

It is not unusual for a commercial contractual relationship to encounter difficulties and, in some cases, an ongoing relationship would simply be unworkable.

The common understanding of "the public" probably conjures up images of a large gathering of people who are audience to an act such as the showing of a film or performance of a play.