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New Year Resolutions For Business People

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Every year without fail millions of people make New Year's resolutions, most of which will be broken by 5 th January. An easy way to keep a New Year resolution is to make one that will benefit your business. During the course of the year, commercial...

Directors Duties - Stick Your Nose In Your Own Business!

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There is often a misconception that once someone is appointed director of a limited company they can pretty much act as they please. It is not that simple. This blog post seeks to explain a little about some of the issues that arise when taking on the...

Energy Efficiency - Can you afford to ignore it?

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Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) Owners of a commercial property – whether they intend to rent or sell the property – must comply with various obligations before the rental or sale of the property can take place. This could involve capital...

Buying a Commercial Property at Auction?

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Purchasing a property at auction is an appealing prospect for potential buyers in that valuable investments can be obtained on favourable financial terms. Therefore, to ensure that this is the case, potential buyers are advised to give consideration to the...

Brethertons appoints new Company Commercial Paralegal

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We have appointed a new Company Commercial paralegal to our team of legal specialists. Sara De Rinaldis joins Brethertons from Meade King Solicitors where she worked as a Corporate Paralegal for over 2 years. She has experience in dealing with a...

Is Brexit a ground for frustration?

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In the recent case of Canary Wharf (BP4) T1 Limited (Landlord) and European Medicines Agency (Tenant); the Tenant is seeking to rely on the doctrine of Frustration to vacate its premises at Canary Wharf, London. Frustration is a doctrine that acts as a...

Could your business be prosecuted?

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What an interesting couple of months for data protection! See below for updates, particularly relating to how businesses can avoid prosecution. Failure to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Businesses that collect...

Avoid the Pitfalls of Comparative Advertising!

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Comparative Advertising The introduction of the European Comparative Advertising Directive 2006 and its implementation into UK law has allowed for companies to advertise their goods alongside those belonging to a third party as long as certain conditions...

Business Fraud - protect your business

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Business fraud is on the rise as fraudsters have realised that targeting businesses, rather than consumers, can yield bigger pay-outs.   The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has estimated that CEO fraud (where someone in the business pays a...

Do you want to send personal data to the US?

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Following the ruling of the European Court of Justice in October 2015 which declared the Safe Harbour framework invalid, the European Commission has now announced its adoption of an adequacy decision approving the new EU-US Privacy Shield. So what does this...

Limited Liability - why risk losing it on the basis of an implied contract?

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A recent decision by the Court of Appeal raises potential risks for companies (and their directors) who are part of a group, about the limited liability protections most companies take for granted. The decision could allow the use of the assets of a...

It's Official - there's lying and then there's LYING

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A judgement issued by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom last week has confirmed that, in relation to insurance claims at least, there really are two kinds of lies.   The question before the court was whether an insurance company could refuse to...

Future Enterprises held up by the Big Mac

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In 2010 a Singapore company, Future Enterprises, registered a European-wide trademark for its product ‘MacCoffee’ but this week that trade mark has been removed from the register following a successful court application by McDonalds. This...

Data Protection at Property Management Unwrapped 2016

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What a superb event the Property Unwrapped Conference was last weekend! My first time attending as a recently joined ‘Brethertonian’. I was so impressed with both the firm for putting on such an event but also with the uptake. More than 140...

Your questions answered on the new PSC Register

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PSC Register – what’s that? PSC stands for ‘persons of significant control’ and it represents changes in corporate law that affect your business. From 6 April 2016, almost every company operating in the UK is required to keep a...

Buying or Selling a Business - It's all about you!

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Last weekend I was speaking at our Property Management Unwrapped conference about selling and buying businesses so this blog is a departure for me as it is a personal reflection on those processes. Someone can sell a business for a variety of reasons;...

General Data Protection Regulation...are you ready?

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Having spent over four years in preparation, the official text for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has now been formally approved; it’s been translated into the EU’s official languages and published in the Official Journal of the...

To encrypt or not to encrypt?

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New guidance has been issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the use of encryption software to protect personal information. It confirmed that regulatory action may be taken where personal information is lost, stolen or subject...

In or out? That is the question!

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Most of the talk around the upcoming EU Referendum has been led by the UK media but here, at the commercial team at Brethertons we want to focus on some of the legal issues likely to affect businesses. Issues after withdrawal The withdrawal by the UK...

Telephone preference: get it right or else!

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So you think that being registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is enough to prevent unwanted marketing calls….?  Think again! It seems that some companies simply can’t help themselves. Despite the Information...

Chocolate Wars highlight the importance of brand protection

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You may not have realised but a war is going on and the battleground is the chocolate stands in your local shop. Nestle and Cadbury have been engaged in a trademark registration law over the shape of the KitKat for over 5 years and, in the latest twist...

Do you or shareholders of your company still hold bearer shares?

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We previously wrote an article on this subject (Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015) when the 9 month period for surrendering bearer shares was implemented.  We are now 8 months into the 9 month surrender period for cancelling or...

The pitfalls of buybacks out of capital

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If your company wants to buy back it’s own shares from an existing shareholder of the company and more particularly, out of the capital of the company, rather than out of distributable profits, then you need to ensure that you follow the statutory...

New data protection law agreed by EU

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Guest blog by Robert Wassall The EU has reached agreement on the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will replace the UK’s Data Protection Act 1998. The details of the new regulation will be clarified in early in...

An early Christmas present from Team Commercial...

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The Commercial Team have come up with six tips to share with you for the New Year following our experiences over the past year. Follow them to help your business run smoothly.   Firstly is my tip:   - Successful collection of long term debts...

What I meant to say...

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Anyone who is in business creates contracts on a daily basis and, if in writing, those contracts will often contain a clause along the lines of ‘this agreement contains the whole agreement between the parties’ But what happens if it...

Business - time to exit?

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In this day and age, we are always being told that the constant demand is for the next thing. So why does this approach not always carry forward to our businesses? I was recently at a business event and I was asked for advice about the future. Now please...

Financing share acquisitions - the alternatives

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Successful businesses are dynamic businesses, ready and willing to take opportunities as they arise, and growth is always on the agenda. Growing your business organically can take time, something which is often short-at-hand in today’s fast-paced...

VW - Learning from the scandal

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At the moment it’s all speculation but with new information emerging on a daily basis, the interest in Volkswagen  shows no sign of letting up. Here at Brethertons we’ve been speculating about where this could all end and the answer appears...

Ashley Madison exposed - don't get caught with your trousers down

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Over the past month a seismic event occurred in America and a less seismic, but no less important, report was published in the UK. Firstly, Ashley Madison, was exposed as hackers revealed the personal details of millions of its registered users -...

Coffee, Chocolate and Cola - the three Cs

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The European Commission is being kept busy at the moment with all things beginning with ‘C’:- Firstly there was the news in June that Ferrero had put in an offer to buy UK chocolate maker Thorntons for £112,000,000.00 causing shares...

Mergers and Acquisitions

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The Corporate Marriage When I was asked by a colleague to write an article about ‘Mergers and Acquisitions’ and keep it short, my first thought was ‘how? it’s such a large topic’! This is the type of deal I work on every...

Protecting your Assets

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Last month the singer, Taylor Swift , made headlines with her stance against Apple Music regarding their policy for paying (or not!) singers for streaming their music.  This week, a photographer in the Midlands was surprised when his blog accusing...

How the budget affects the corporate world

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Most of the talk before today’s budget was about the government’s expected welfare cuts but on behalf of Team Commercial here at Brethertons I want to focus on the measures that affect the corporate world. The headline grabbing policy announced...

Forget the Euro - Data is the new number one currency

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Last week, almost unheralded amidst all the press coverage of the Greek debt crisis, the European Commission issued a press release confirming the Ministers in the Justice Council had agreed, in principal, to the Commission’s proposals for new EU-wide...

Even the Chancellor can struggle when it comes to selling

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In last week’s Mansion House speech, the chancellor George Osbourne announced, as many had expected, that the sale of the public’s stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland was on.  Many people are surprised it has taken this long but the truth...