Using images online without permission is not as prevalent as you might think, purely because the law offers image owners substantial protection against theft, unauthorised use, or copyright infringement.

The definition of intellectual property is ‘any type of intangible property that is a result of creativity’.

The Intellectual Property Office will usually send the owner of a registered trade mark a letter giving notice that an application has been received for the registration of a similar trade mark.

We are often asked if businesses need to ask their existing contacts to opt-in to receive marketing communications again once the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in May 2018.

Often we are approached by frustrated businesses who have discovered someone else has been using their name but have no registered trade mark.

Unregistered design rights, referred to as just ‘design rights’, are a valuable asset which tends to be forgotten. These are just 3 reasons why they should not be overlooked:

Your website is your shop front but many don’t do enough to show customers they are just a trustworthy as bricks and mortar.

The great benefit of social media as a marketing tool is its immediate and powerful market reach. The use of hashtags (words and phrases preceded by the ‘#’ symbol to identify and search for trending topics) has become a popular method of consumer engagement.

Website privacy policies are often ignored or copied from a competitor.  This approach fails to recognise the value that a privacy policy can have to a business as well as the huge risk of failing to comply with data protection legislation.