Ian Silcock speaking at Bootlaw in June 2009

On 6th October 2010 we are delighted to welcome back Ian Silcock, an IP barrister at Hardwicke Chambers, to discuss the latest developments in the use (and abuse) of trademarks on the internet. Following various recent European Court decisions, the use of trademarks as advertising keywords is firmly in the spotlight, and Ian is well versed in this complex area of law.

Ian will also speak to us about the use of trademarks in domain names – and issues around reclaiming or defending domain name challenges – as answering as many of your question as possible.

Ian last appeared at Bootlaw in June and July 2009 – when attracted rave reviews from Bootlawyers for his entertaining and educational presentations.

Bootlaw Members can RSVP for this event here

Ian began his career as a barrister specialising in IP litigation in the legal department of The Body Shop Intl Plc. Before commencing independent practice at the bar in 2002, he worked as in-house legal counsel to a global internet and domain name consultancy, and later as technical assistant to a leading firm of patent & trade mark attorneys.

In addition to his legal experience, Ian has a post-graduate degree in computer science, which he obtained with a distinction in 2001, following the award of a scholarship from the European Physics & Science Research Council in the previous year.

Ian’s practice covers all aspects of intellectual property and information technology law, including the law of patents, copyright, designs, trade marks and passing off, as well as aspects of related fields, such as media, music and entertainment law, defamation, breach of confidence and competition law. In the field of ADR, Ian has experience of acting for clients in mediation and in arbitration under the Arbitration Act 1996. He has lectured at the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office (epi) in Munich, and is Visiting Lecturer both to the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, London, and to the Centre d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Industrielle (CEIPI), Strasbourg.

Yum!

It’s that time of year again when Bootlaw takes a break from dishing out helpful legal advice and instead dishes out tasty BBQ food and drinks – yes, it’s time for our summer BBQ.  This time, on Thursday 26 August, we are running it in association with our good friends at Chinwag as a joint event for Digital Mission alumni.  We’ve been the proud sponsors of four out of five Digital Missions to the US, taking scores of great UK companies to the US, so we’re looking forward to seeing many of them again at this event.

Last year there were some grumbles that there was no sign of a real BBQ – well this year it will be different and we’ve got exclusive use of the 3rd floor plus roof terrace of the stylish pub, the Driver in Kings Cross.

You can sign up via the Eventbrite page or via the form below.

Tickets are priced as low as possible at £15+VAT.  However, there are 50 tickets for Bootlaw members priced at £10+VAT, which will be for the first 50 Bootlawyers to use the special discount code contained in an email sent via Meetup!

This event is open to all, so bring your friends and let’s have a great party to round off the summer!

After 18 meetups of offering something new every time, we thought that we should revisit some of our classic hits for our July meetup.

On 13 July 2010 (NB: it is a Tuesday night) we will be revisiting some of the basics of start up legals. We’ll explain what goes into your articles of association and when a shareholders’ agreement is appropriate. We’ll discuss the essential issues around securing your company’s intellectual property and taking on employees and contractors.

Our approach is all about taking simple steps to avoid expensive errors and making your company attractive to potential investors and purchasers.

As usual we’ll throw in some good real-life examples from case law and some war stories of our own.

If there is anything in particular you’d like us to cover, please let us know when you RSVP, but as ever we are open to all questions on the night and afterwards at the pub.

Bootlaw members can sign up here

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking
7pm – Legal bit starts
8pm – Legal bit ends, more beer, pizza and more networking
9pm – Go to pub, by beer for any lawyers present

Drown your sorrows and eat some pizza after another pathetic England performance against Slovenia (it will all be over by the time we take the stage) and come and visit your friendly lawyers where we’ll tell you all about sex, lies and money. Not necessarily in that order.

In our June 23rd Bootlaw, just so we can tell Bootlawyers all they need to know about the Emergency Budget the day before, we’re going to stay up really late just for you working out what it means for entrepreneurs and growth businesses.

We’ll see if Danvers got his predictions here right and we’ll tell you our unbiased views of what we think it means from a government David Cameron has pledged will make the next decade the “most entrepreneurial and dynamic in our history”

In other news we’ll touch on the Epic Boobs Girl. The latest developments on privacy following the ruling from the Press Complaints Commission about online privacy…just so long as we’ve managed to prise Danvers away from his detailed research on the web about it. [no links available - Ed.]

And finally, we’ll look at the hints given by the Information Commissioner in its long awaited guidance for the Online Privacy Guidelines and we’ll look at the much anticipated Libel Bill proposals.

Bootlaw members can sign up here

Much like plants (see below) social media is generally thought to be a positive in this world, but as with plants, things can sometimes go wrong.

On 27th April 2010, we are going to look at how things can go wrong with social media, which will include the DANGER of user generated content, the RISKS of running competitions and the OTHER SCAREY THINGS that can happen when you improperly use personal data.

We will also look at how website owners can act responsibily to manage legal risks associated with their websites as well as answering all your questions.

If you would like to attend this event Bootlaw Members can sign up here!

(you need to be logged into Meetup.com)

6.30pm – Doors open, drinks etc
7pm – Legal bit
8pm – More beer, pizza and networking
9pm – Go to pub and buy beers for lawyers.

Danvers speaking @ Tempero #ugclaw

Bootlaw was out and about last week as I was asked to speak at an event organised by comment moderation company, Tempero, on User Generated Content (UGC) and the Law.  The event was to mark the launch of an eBook produced by Tempero, which contains a useful overview of some of the key legal issues raised by UGC.  With perfect timing, the event came on the same day that news broke that the Italian Courts had found three Google executives to be criminally liable for a video posted on Google Video of an autistic child being bullied.  Although this case demonstrates how companies can be liable for content posted by users, our view is that this case is an abberation – in complete contradiction to established principles of European law – and is likely to be overturned on appeal at a later stage.  Whatever happens, we’ll be watching with interest.

Back at Tempero, Dominic Sparkes introduced the evening with a brief introduction to the company, which we first met on the very first Digital Mission.   I was next up talking about “common misconceptions” in particular, discussing the extent of the “ISP Defence” for publishers who do not moderate. It is often thought that publishers who allow all comments and other UGC through and only moderate reactively (in response to take down notices, for example) will automatically be able to defend on this basis.  However, where a publisher has obviously read all the comments posted on a blog (or could reasonably be expected to have read all the comments – e.g. if they were few in number), then it is unlikely that the ISP defence would work.  A publisher has to argue that it did not have knowledge of the offending comment AND could not be expected to know that it could have been defamatory.  The limits of reasonableness were debated – but given this has been largely untested by the courts, it is only possible to speculate what might work.

Attentive audience @ #ugclaw

Other speakers included John Robinson from NHS Choices, who spoke about the challenge of allowing patients to review the service they had received from the NHS, or in some cases the treatment relatives had received – which could sometimes be quite harrowing.  Jon Bishop, Community Manager at Gumtree, talked about the challenge of managing a massive community driven site and how Gumtree moderates its message boards as well as its main site.

Next up, Molly Flatt gave us an informed overview of the sorts of crafty marketing strategies which have been banned, such as astroturfing, sock puppets, as well as the correct way of promoting products to independent bloggers. Finally, we heard from Debbie Towersey on some of the HR implications of social media, with a few amusing examples of employees being caught out by some dumb postings on their Facebook (it’s always Facebook!) pages.  Remember, HR people have no qualms about using sock puppets to “friend” you on Facebook to circumvent privacy settings!

Tempero’s own report of the evening is here.

And here is the ebook.

User-generated content and the law

As the economy slowly recovers we are seeing more companies looking to make strategic acquisitions of other businesses in whole or in part. The opportunity for entrepreneurs is on either side of the fence, so on Wednesday, 24 March 2010 we will be looking at the key legal issues involved in selling parts of your business, negotiating an exit and also making an acquisition. We’ll also look at the concept of M&A-lite which involves the sale of a significant stake to a strategic partner.

This session is highly recommended for any Bootlawyer thinking about buying or selling a business or part of a business this year – or anyone who wants a evening of great networking, pizza, beer and the scintillating wit of Barry and Danvers…

Bootlaw members can sign up here

6.30pm – Doors open (beer and networking)
7pm – Legal presentation, Q&A
8pm – Beer and pizza
9pm – Pub o’clock

UPDATE – the video of this event is here.

Drawing on our experiences of fighting and dodging commercial disputes, we’ll be talking about the typical disputes involving small tech companies and how they can be resolved at an early stage. We’ll also outline what happens when legal proceedings do start, including the nuts and bolts of timing and cost.

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking
7pm – Legal bit plus Q&A
8pm – More beer and networking, plus pizza.
9pm – Pub

Courtroom Dramas -

And here is the video of the evening:

On 20 January, Bootlaw will be starting the New Year with something different. Regardless of political beliefs (although we don’t tend to make a secret of ours), most people and most opinion polls anticipate that 2010 will bring a change of government to the UK as David Cameron replaces Gordon Brown at Number 10 Downing Street.

What this will mean for the UK’s digital economy at a time when the Labour government is pushing ahead with its controversial Digital Economy Bill is a question on many people’s lips.

To address this question and answer any others you might have, we have secured the appearance of Ed Vaizey MP, Conservative shadow arts minister and spokesman on digital media issues.

UPDATE (21/01/10):

Many thanks to Ed Vaizey for an excellent evening. If you were unable to make it along, the whole evening was caught on camera: