Expert Analysis

• Employers Can 'Waive' Goodbye To Unknown Future Claims

  

  The Scottish Court of Session's recent decision in Bathgate v. Technip Singapore, holding that unknown future claims in a qualifying settlement agreement can be waived, offers employers the possibility of achieving a clean break when terminating employees and provides practitioners with much-needed guidance on how future cases might be dealt with in court, says Natasha Nichols at Farrer & Co.

• AI Inventorship Patent Options After UK Supreme Court Ruling

  

  The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Thaler v. Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks that an AI system cannot be an inventor raises questions about alternative approaches to patent protection for AI-generated inventions and how the decision might affect infringement and validity disputes around such patents, says David Knight at Brown Rudnick.

• Ruling Elucidates Tensions In Assessing Employee Disability

  

  An employment tribunal's recent decision, maintaining that dermatitis was not a disability, but stress was, illustrates tensions in the interaction between statutory guidance on reasonable behavior modifications and Equality Act measures, says Suzanne Nulty at Weightmans.

• What Extending Corporate Liability Will Mean For Foreign Cos.

  

  Certain sections of the Economic Crime Act enacted in December 2023 make it easier to prosecute companies for economic crimes committed abroad, and organizations need to consider their exposure and the new ways they can be held liable for the actions of their personnel, say Dan Hudson at Seladore Legal and Christopher Coltart at 2 Hare Court.

• Cos. Should Weave Metaverse Considerations Into IP Strategy

  

  In light of the increasing importance of intellectual property protection in digital contexts, including a growing number of court rulings and recent updates to the classification of digital assets, companies should include the metaverse as part of their trademark strategy to prevent potential infringements, says Gabriele Engels at D Young & Co.

• ECJ Ruling Triggers Reconsiderations Of Using AI In Hiring

  

  A recent European Court of Justice ruling, clarifying that the General Data Protection Regulation could apply to decisions made by artificial intelligence, serves as a warning to employers, as the use of AI in recruitment may lead to more discrimination claims, say Dino Wilkinson and James Major at Clyde & Co.

• Economic Crime Act Offers Welcome Reform To AML Regime

  

  The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act exemption for mixed-property transactions that came into force on Jan. 15 as part of the U.K.'s anti-money laundering regime is long overdue, and should end economic harm to businesses, giving banks confidence to adopt a more pragmatic approach, say Matthew Getz and Joseph Fox-Davies at Pallas Partners.

• What Venice Swaps Ruling Says About Foreign Law Disputes

  

  The English appeals court's decision in Banca Intesa v. Venice that the English law swaps are valid and enforceable will be welcomed by banks, and it provides valuable commentary on the English courts' approach toward the interpretation of foreign law, say Harriet Campbell and Richard Marshall at Penningtons Manches.

• Key Litigation Funding Rulings Will Drive Reform In 2024

  

  Ground-breaking judgments on disputes funding and fee arrangements from 2023 — including that litigation funding agreements could be damages-based agreements, rendering them unenforceable — will bring legislative changes in 2024, which could have a substantial impact on litigation risk for several sectors, say Verity Jackson-Grant and David Bridge at Simmons & Simmons.

• How Data Privacy Law Cases Are Evolving In UK, EU And US

  

  To see where the law is heading in 2024, it is worth looking at privacy litigation and enforcement trends from last year, where we saw a focus on General Data Protection Regulation regulatory enforcement actions in the U.K. and EU, and class actions brought by private plaintiffs in the U.S., say lawyers at Morgan Lewis.

• Misleading Airline Ads Offer Lessons To Avoid Greenwashing

  

  Following the Advertising Standards Authority's recent decision that three airlines' adverts misled customers about their environmental impact, companies should ensure that their green claims comply with legal standards to avoid risking reputational damage, which could have financial repercussions, say Elaina Bailes and Olivia Shaw at Stewarts.

• Supreme Court Ruling Is A Gift To Insolvency Practitioners

  

  As corporate criminal liability is in sharp focus, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Palmer v. Northern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court that administrators are not company officers and should not be held liable under U.K. labor law is instructive in focusing on the substance and not merely the title of a person's role within a company, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.

• Major EU AI Banking Ruling Will Reverberate Across Sectors

  

  Following the European Court of Justice's recent OQ v. Land Hessen decision that banks' use of AI-driven credit scores to make consumer decisions did not comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, regulators indicated that the ruling would apply broadly, leaving numerous industries that employ AI-powered decisions open to scrutiny, say lawyers at Alston & Bird.

• English Could Be The Future Language Of The UPC

  

  While most Unified Patent Court proceedings are currently held in German, the recent decisions in Plant-e v. Arkyne and Amgen v. Sanofi potentially signal that English will be the preferred language, particularly in cases involving small and medium enterprises, say lawyers at Freshfields.

• Arbitration Remains Attractive For Digital Disputes In 2024

  

  Recent regulatory and digital forum developments highlight that, in 2024, arbitration will continue to adapt to new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, and remain an attractive forum for resolving digital disputes due to its flexibility, confidentiality and comparative ease to enforce cross-border awards, says Peter Smith at Charles Russell.