Commercial Litigation UK

  • April 23, 2024

    Ex-Autonomy Tech Exec Doubted 'Bizarre' $6M Deal, Jury Told

    Autonomy's ex-chief technology officer testified Tuesday in the California federal fraud trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that he had concerns about Autonomy's "bizarre" 2010 deal to sell $6 million in repackaged hardware, which prosecutors allege was never delivered and was only used to artificially inflate Autonomy's revenues.

  • April 23, 2024

    Post Office GC Felt 'Scapegoated' Over Horizon Review

    The Post Office's former general counsel felt "scapegoated" over the conclusions of an independent report she commissioned into the IT system used to prosecute hundreds of innocent people, she told the inquiry into the scandal Tuesday.

  • April 23, 2024

    Advertising Biz Can't Avoid Liability For Billboard Tech IP

    A London appeals court ruled Tuesday that a sports advertising company's digital billboard displays did not analyze pixels in a different enough way to overturn a finding that it infringed a rival's patent for the moving displays.

  • April 23, 2024

    Biotech Gets Rival's DNA-Detection Patents Invalidated

    A London court nixed two DNA sequence detection patents Tuesday, ruling that information available before they were protected would have prompted skilled scientists to make the invention eventually.

  • April 23, 2024

    Litigation Funders Face Risk Of Regulation In Judicial Reform

    England's judicial adviser announced Tuesday that it has launched a review into third-party civil litigation funding that will consider whether to regulate the sector, cap fees and investigate conflicts of interest between funders and litigants.

  • April 23, 2024

    UK Shuts Business For Fraudulent Timeshare Exit Claims

    The U.K. government said Tuesday that it has shut down an unregulated timeshare exit company after finding that it was "misleading hundreds of clients" by offering them help with complications in their timeshare contracts.

  • April 23, 2024

    YMCA Exec Loses Claim That In-Office Rule Forced Her Out

    A senior employee at a YMCA hostel has lost her claim that she was forced to quit because bosses would not let her permanently switch to remote working, after an employment tribunal ruled it wasn't in her contract.

  • April 23, 2024

    Tesco Can't Renege On Pay Pledges, Union Tells Top UK Court

    Retail giant Tesco violated workers' contracts when it "fired and rehired" them so it could remove what it described as a "permanent" pay supplement, a British trade union argued to the U.K. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

  • April 23, 2024

    Worker Wins £71K For 'Shocking And Spiteful' Harassment

    The Cardiff Employment Tribunal has awarded an aspiring police constable over £71,000 ($88,000), after his former colleagues launched a campaign of "shocking and spiteful" harassment to blackmail him into withdrawing his claims by sabotaging his policing career.

  • April 23, 2024

    Great Western Fights Worker's Whistleblowing Win On Appeal

    British train operator Great Western Railway fought to overturn a worker's whistleblowing win Tuesday, arguing that a tribunal wrongly concluded that managers launched an "inadequate and partial" misconduct probe against him because he had sued the company years before.

  • April 23, 2024

    Bank Of Ireland Used Deceit To Loan Millions, Investor Claims

    Bank of Ireland allegedly deceived a real estate investment business into borrowing millions from it by giving inflated property evaluations based on old estimates that were £1.2 million ($1.5 million) higher than up-to-date figures, according to a London court filing.

  • April 23, 2024

    UK Rules Sri Lanka Ship Insurance Row Must Be In London

    A U.K. judge ruled Tuesday that a Sri Lankan shipping company cannot sue a London-based insurer in its home country over liability for a sunken container ship because the insurance contract is governed by English law.

  • April 23, 2024

    Panasonic Accused Of 'Illegitimate Pressure' In Patent Fight

    Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi asked a London court on Tuesday to prevent Panasonic from suing it in overseas jurisdictions amid a patent dispute, arguing that its Japanese rival is using the threat of injunctions to put pressure on it to accept a licensing deal.

  • April 30, 2024

    Restructuring Pro Rejoins Dentons From Faegre Drinker

    Dentons has hired a partner back from Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP to head its restructuring and insolvency practice in the U.K., Ireland and the Middle East — a move the returning partner called "a really compelling proposition."

  • April 23, 2024

    Investment Fund Accuses Repository Of Dishonesty

    A U.K. investment fund has accused a registered securitization repository of acting dishonestly and unlawfully when it repeatedly refused to provide the fund's subsidiary access to data critical to help it make informed decisions about future investments.

  • April 23, 2024

    Pfizer Says Moderna MRNA Patent Offers Nothing New

    Pfizer urged a London court on Tuesday to revoke one of Moderna's patents for the mRNA vaccine, kicking off the U.K. arm of the global litigation campaign over the central intellectual property behind the COVID-19 jabs.

  • April 23, 2024

    Coughing Not A Disability For Axed Anti-Mask Care Worker

    A nursing company did not discriminate against a former staff member when it axed her for refusing to wear a face mask while visiting a patient's home, a tribunal has held, ruling that her coughing fits did not count as a disability or exempt her from the company's policies.

  • April 23, 2024

    Top UK Court Blocks Gazprom Unit's Russian UniCredit Claim

    Britain's highest court upheld an injunction on Tuesday barring a Gazprom subsidiary from pursuing a €450 million ($480 million) claim against UniCredit Bank AG in Russia after the German lender withheld financing for the construction of gas processing plants because of sanctions.

  • April 22, 2024

    Finance Biz. Sues Ex-Contractor For £1.6M Over Stolen Clients

    A finance company has accused a self-employed adviser of breaching obligations after exiting the company and taking more than a hundred customers worth £1.6 million ($1.9 million) of future income with her to a competitor. 

  • April 22, 2024

    Pfizer, Moderna Set To Tee Off Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patents

    A London court is poised to consider Tuesday whether Pfizer infringed patents that Moderna initially pledged to not enforce, marking the first time a court has weighed in on the topic.

  • April 22, 2024

    Trader Behind £1.4B Tax Fraud Thought Trades Were Valid

    A British trader accused of being the mastermind of a fraudulent trading scheme that cost Denmark's tax authority £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) genuinely believed that the trades worked, his lawyer told a London court on Monday.

  • April 22, 2024

    Med Tech Founder Denies Deceiving Investors For $20M Sale

    The co-founder of a medical technology business has denied concealing his financial interest in a $20 million deal to purchase shares in his company, claiming he was never told it was important to reveal the seller's identity to the investment company.

  • April 22, 2024

    Abbott Says Rival Can Make Diabetes Tech Without TM Shape

    An Abbott Laboratories unit is defending a 3D trademark it owns over its continuous glucose monitoring devices, arguing that it is the only company offering a device in that distinctive circular shape despite Sinocare Inc. and other rivals' arguments to the contrary.

  • April 22, 2024

    Commerzbank Did Not Pay Analyst Less Due To His Gender

    Commerzbank did not pay an axed compliance analyst a lower salary than his female colleagues based on his sex, a London tribunal has held, ruling that the bank based its pay offers on salary expectations among other benchmarking factors.

  • April 22, 2024

    Ex-Axiom Ince Chief Faces Bankruptcy Petition

    The former head of collapsed Axiom Ince Ltd. is facing a bankruptcy petition after being accused of misappropriating almost £65 million ($80.3 million) to fund the acquisition of Ince Group PLC and property purchases.

Expert Analysis

  • Why Indonesia Feels Frustrated By Airbus Dispute Outcome

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    Although the U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s Airbus bribery investigation achieved a record payout for regulators, Indonesia’s threat to sue for lack of credit for its contribution serves as a reminder of the need to take care when settlements are distributed among investigating partners, says Niall Hearty at Rahman Ravelli.

  • UAE Bank Case Offers Lessons On Enforcing Foreign Rulings

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    The High Court recently clarified in Invest Bank v. El-Husseini that foreign judgment debts may be enforceable in England, despite being unenforceable in their jurisdiction of origin, which should remind practitioners that foreign judgments will be recognized in England if they are final and conclusive in their court of origin, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.

  • 9 Hallmarks Of The New German Class Action Regime

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    By recently adopting a new class action regime, Germany is taking an incremental step toward more collective redress, which may fundamentally change its litigation landscape amid increased European regulatory activity, a growing focus on private enforcement of regulations, and a consumer-friendly German judiciary, say lawyers at Gibson Dunn.

  • Protecting The Arbitral Process In Russia-Related Disputes

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    Four recent High Court and Court of Appeal rulings concerning anti-suit injunction claims illustrate that companies exposed to litigation risk in Russia may need to carefully consider how to best protect their interests and the arbitral process with regard to a Russian counterparty, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • Examining US And Europe Patent Disclosure For AI Inventions

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    As applicants before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office increasingly seek patent protection for inventions relating to artificial intelligence, the applications may require more implementation details than traditional computer-implemented inventions, including disclosure of data and methods used to train the AI systems, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Incontinence Drug Ruling Offers Key Patent Drafting Lessons

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    In a long-awaited decision in Astellas v. Teva and Sandoz, an English court found that the patent for a drug used to treat overactive bladder syndrome had not been infringed, highlighting the interaction between patent drafting and litigation strategy, and why claim infringement is as important a consideration as validity, says George McCubbin at Herbert Smith.

  • RSA Insurance Ruling Clarifies Definition Of 'Insured Loss'

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    A London appeals court's recent ruling in Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance v. Tughans, that the insurer must provide coverage for a liability that included the law firm's fees, shows that a claim for the recovery of fees paid to a firm can constitute an insured loss, say James Roberts and Sophia Hanif at Clyde & Co.

  • Putin Ruling May Have Unintended Sanctions Consequences

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    By widening the scope of control, the Court of Appeal's recent judgment in Mints v. PJSC opens the possibility that everything in Russia could be deemed to be controlled by President Vladimir Putin, which would significantly expand the U.K.'s sanctions regime in unintended ways, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • EPO Decision Significantly Relaxes Patent Priority Approach

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    In a welcome development for patent applicants, a recent European Patent Office decision redefines the way that entitlement to priority is assessed, significantly relaxing the previous approach and making challenges to the right to priority in post-grant opposition proceedings far more difficult, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • Landmark EU Climate Case May Shape Future Disputes

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    The European Court of Human Rights' recent hearing in its first-ever climate change case Agostinho v. Portugal, concerning human rights violation claims due to countries' failure to curb emissions, may develop the law on admissibility and guide future climate disputes before domestic courts, say Stefanie Spancken-Monz and Leane Meyer at Freshfields.

  • Bias Claim Highlights Need For Menopause Support Policies

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    The recent U.K. Employment Tribunal case Rooney v. Leicester City Council, concerning a menopause discrimination claim, illustrates the importance of support policies that should feed into an organization's wider diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging strategies, say Ellie Gelder, Kelly Thomson and Victoria Othen at RPC.

  • UK Case Offers Lessons On Hiring Accommodations

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    The U.K. Employment Appeal Tribunal recently ruled in Aecom v. Mallon that an employer had failed to make reasonable adjustments to an online application for an applicant with a disability, highlighting that this obligation starts from the earliest point of the recruitment process, say Nishma Chudasama and Emily Morrison at SA Law.

  • Shifting From Technical To Clear Insurance Contract Wordings

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    Recent developments on insurance policies, including the Financial Conduct Authority's new consumer duty, represent a major shift for insurers and highlight the importance of drafting policies that actively improve understanding, rather than shift the onus onto the end user, say Tamsin Hyland and Jonathan Charwat at RPC.

  • A Case For The Green Investment Regime Under The ECT

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    The EU and U.K.'s potential plans to exit the Energy Charter Treaty, which has been criticized as protecting fossil fuel investments to the detriment of energy transition, ignore the significant strides taken to modernize the treaty and its ability to promote investment in cleaner energy forms, say Amy Frey and Simon Maynard at King & Spalding.

  • How Employers Can Support Neurodiversity In The Workplace

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    A recent run of cases emphasize employers' duties to make reasonable adjustments for neurodiverse employees under the Equalities Act, illustrating the importance of investing in staff education and listening to neurodivergent workers to improve recruitment, retention and productivity in the workplace, say Anna Henderson and Tim Leaver at Herbert Smith.

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