EU leaders have reached agreement on a Unified Patent Court and a unitary patent system across 25 European countries. The court will be based in Paris but will have a London section covering cases involving pharmaceutical and life science issues. There will also be a section in Munich covering engineering and resources. Business Secretary Vince
The Government has announced further changes to the planning system to make it simpler and quicker to use. The measures include making it easier to re-use some existing buildings without the need for planning permission. This would include the ‘meanwhile’ use of vacant commercial premises for purposes such as helping start-up businesses. There are also
Sweeping changes to staff consultation procedures during large scale redundancies are now being considered by the Government. Under the current rules, companies must consult with their employees for 90 days if there are likely to be large scale redundancies involving more than 100 employees. Employment Relations Minister Norman Lamb wants to shorten this consultation period
Shareholders are to be given greater control over directors’ pay and bonuses under reforms put forward by the Government. The new measures will give shareholders binding votes on pay policy and exit payments, enabling them to hold companies to account and prevent rewards for failure. Ministers say they will also boost transparency so it is
Landlords need to ensure they include their name and address when sending demands for rent to tenants. Failure to do so could result in tenants refusing to pay, as happened in a recent case that ended in legal proceedings. It involved a landlord who asked his agent to serve demands for payment of outstanding service
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced new measures to make the international system of patent application faster and more efficient. The changes affect the UK’s fast track system and will allow applicants to make changes to an international application while still being able to request accelerated processing in the UK. The IPO says this
Improving the employment tribunal system and setting up a new Competition and Markets Authority are two of the main points of the new Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. It will also tackle directors’ pay and the burden of red tape. The Government says the Bill is a central element in its drive to deliver strong
Employers need to be careful what they say to staff during informal meetings, as one firm found to its cost recently. The firm, which carried out services for a large banking group, was about to be taken over. During an informal meeting with staff broadcast over the internet, it announced that a “guaranteed” minimum bonus
It is vital to get the balance right when trying to protect your business by subjecting employees to restrictive covenants. If the conditions are not strict enough, they may not prevent the employee setting up a rival enterprise or helping a rival firm; if they are too strict, they may not be enforceable, as in
The growing problem of late payment is threatening the survival of many SMEs, according to new research. The credit reference agency Graydon UK, working in conjunction with the Forum of Private Business, surveyed 500 small firms across the UK. The responses showed that 16% had almost been put out of business as a result of