Blog archive

EU legislation to introduce a new regulatory system for general medical devices (the Medical Devices Regulation) was to have taken effect from 26 May 2020.

The EU Commission has announced that it is working on a proposal to delay this date for one year in the light of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis.

The government has announced a number of measures to support business during the coronavirus crisis including loan support in the form of CBILS and CCFF.

The UK Government is taking immediate action to support suppliers to the public sector where contract performance is affected due to COVID-19.

In these challenging times, many organisations are finding compliance with data protection law more difficult. Staff absences and homeworking, as well as the need to share health-related information, mean that normal policies and procedures are harder to follow. 

The COVID-19 outbreak is now causing widespread disruption in many countries, with increasing impact on supply chains and transport.

The long-running dispute over agreements to settle patent litigation between innovator company GSK and a series of generic producers has now reached the CJEU.

The UK’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Update, published last month, renews the focus on a business environment that promotes effective scaling of innovative businesses. Part of that picture is support for local R&D and innovation clusters.

As the UK looks forward to its future outside the EU, we are gradually seeing more structure and shape begin to emerge.

We have seen an increasing willingness among judges in the English courts to accept an exchange of email correspondence as a binding contract, with obvious dangers for businesses trying to adhere to standard contracting terms and policies. 

From April 2020, the change will see many larger private sector businesses required to deduct income tax and National Insurance contributions via payroll from fees for services.

Brexit is moving into the next phase, with the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement taking effect today. This will have an impact on many intellectual property rights.