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Archive for the ‘UK Law’ Category

The first part of this reform was established in July 2009, and there is currently public consultation going on that considers including new points based elements in the qualifying criteria sometime before approving the naturalization of a foreign person.

The reforms present important restrictions to the activities of migrants who want to become citizens and most probably will impact whether these people will be ready to travel for business or other reasons in representation of a UK company.

The second part of the reform asks for several changes in UK citizenship law, and includes the new ‘path to citizenship’. Most of the detail of this new path will appear in future immigration rules and guidance, but it includes the following points:

-The indefinite leave to remain will be substituted by the probationary citizenship, which is really an extra period of limited leave to remain before applying for either citizenship or permanent residence.

-Migrant workers could be required to be in uninterrupted employment during the probationary citizenship period.

-The migrants on probationary citizenship will not be able to access certain public funds and will not be regarded as settled under immigration UK law and for nationality law purposes.

-The period of the probationary citizenship stage will be between one and three years for the migrants who later apply for citizenship, and between three to five years for the ones who later apply for permanent residence.

-The period of the probationary citizenship stage can be reduced if the migrant meets an ‘activity requirement’ that deals with getting involved in voluntary activities, nevertheless, the details on how to do this are not known yet.

-The migrants who want to apply for permanent residence or citizenship must hold leave/status in specific qualifying immigration categories.

-The maximum permitted absence time during each year of the qualifying period will be ninety days, however, there can be extenuating reasons that will have to be studied.

The new ‘path to citizenship’ is planned to begin in July 2011, with transitional protection of as far as two years for the migrants who have applied for indefinite leave to remain by the time it starts.

Migrants and employers should be concerned, because the policy regarding treatment of excess absences will most probably not be available before mid 2010, and no one knows if the policy will be applied with hindsight.

Migrants who want to protect their eligibility to apply for probationary citizenship, naturalization, and/or permanent residence may have to avoid leaving the UK for more than ninety days per year until the policy is finalized. This will certainly impact the hiring decisions of UK employers that need to send employees abroad to work on global projects, or who offer international work positions or programs.

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Intellectual property law is the law that governs rights in creative works and inventions. The most common such rights are patents, copyright and trademarks.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright is a right which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it. This right extends to most literary, dramatic and art forms. Copyright is not indefinite, but rather last for a limited period. This period will vary depending on the type of work, and ranges from 25 years from the date of publication to 70 years from the date of death of the author. Copyright exists automatically, and does not require any form of registration for the creator to have copyright protection.

PATENTS
A patent represents a series of rights granted by a national government, which effectively grants the patent holder protection and exclusive exploitation rights in connection with an invention. Not everything can be patented; patents will only be granted for something which is an invention, and which are novel, inventive and useful or industrially applicable.

Where a difficulty arises in UK law is in deciding whether something is an “invention”. For any invention involving a tangible, physical object, this is rarely an issue, but the law is reluctant to apply to the status of “invention” to intangible processes or systems. This is usually extended to computer software, which is notoriously difficult to patent (although it will be subject to copyright).

Patents can be obtained in the UK and other countries. There are also international patent-granting authorities, such as the European Patent Office and the International Patent Office. Many countries around the world accept the validity of internationally granted patents. Patent registration is a highly specialised area and is generally handled by expert patent attorneys.

TRADEMARKS
A trademark is a distinctive indicator used by a business to identify itself. This may simply be a word or phrase, but it may also be a logo, sign or image. Trademarks can be registered for extra protection, but even if a trademark is unregistered the owner still has significant protection against its use by a third party, if the trademark owner can demonstrate established use and the perception in the eyes of the public of the association of that trademark with the trademark owner.

There are also rights in UK and European law to protect rights in designs. This can be useful for a business producing goods which are of a specialist or distinctive appearance.

All of the above is collectively referred to as intellectual property rights. Such rights can generally be sold or transferred permanently or, if the original owner wishes, to remain the owner, but is willing to allow others to use the rights, they can be licensed permanently or for a finite period, with the licensee acquiring exclusive or non-exclusive rights, as agreed between the parties.

Intellectual property rights can often be significant in corporate mergers and acquisitions; it is common for the main imperative behind the acquisition of a company to be the securing of the intellectual property rights owned by the company. It is therefore important for any business which is reliant on intellectual property to take the necessary steps to protect and secure that intellectual property, in order to preserve the value of the business.

When looking for an intellectual property solicitor it’s advisable to seek out a law firm that has extensive experience and expertise in dealing with intellectual property matters, including in the licensing and transfer of rights and handling disputes around alleged infringement of rights. A good intellectual property solicitor will take a realistic and commercial approach to your needs and ensure that they understand your business and the way it operates, in order to understand the value of the intellectual property right to you and best methods for protecting it.