Fieldfisher

🪔✨ Happy Diwali to everyone celebrating around the world! May this Festival of Lights bring joy, prosperity, and good health to you and your loved ones. Wishing you a bright and blessed Diwali filled with new beginnings and lasting happiness. #Diwali #FestivalOfLights #HappyDiwali

💡📄 Key EU AI Act insights! In the Guidance Note below, Fieldfisher experts Thorsten Ihler and Johannes Baur provide key information on navigating the EU AI Act and adapting to evolving regulations. For a deeper understanding, click on the post below to explore the guidance. Fieldfisher Germany #AI #AIAct #EUAIAct #TechReg #Data #DataProtection

💪⭐ Proud to support initiatives that inspire confidence in our future female leaders! As a firm, we really do believe in making a difference in our communities. That’s why we’re proud to have members of our Fieldfisher Belfast Hub actively involved and volunteering with SistersIN, an organisation dedicated to empowering and uplifting sixth-form girls by building their confidence and expanding their perspectives. Our female mentors and colleagues, Ellie Williamson, Jilly Kerr and Lisa Algie play a crucial role in the SistersIN mission and are passionate about supporting girls and creating a more inclusive and diverse future for women in the professional world. Thank you to our SistersIN volunteers and to everyone at Fieldfisher who volunteers their time and skills for such important causes. To read more about the incredible work and impact of SistersIN, please visit: https://ow.ly/tSbM50TXXql #SistersIn #Inclusion #WomenInBusiness #Volunteering #DiversityAndInclusion #Equity #Leadership #WomenInLaw

📚🐛 We are delighted to announce our expanded partnership with Chapter One UK to strengthen our commitment to children’s literacy! This collaboration, which began in Manchester, is now growing in Birmingham. Our team will engage with 5- to 8-year-olds in Birmingham and Solihull, delivering weekly one-on-one online reading sessions to provide essential support to young learners. The need couldn't be clearer. With 48% of children in Birmingham facing poverty and high literacy needs across the city, programs like this one play a vital role in giving kids a strong start in education. Through Chapter One’s platform, Team Fieldfisher is helping to bridge this literacy gap, supporting children, inspiring curious young minds, and nurturing a love for reading and stories. In addition to our work with Chapter One, we are proud of our volunteering efforts through programs like Time to Read in Belfast, where our volunteers dedicated 112 hours of reading with pupils this past year, with plans to continue in 2024/25. These community programs align perfectly with Fieldfisher's commitment to promoting children's rights and educational equality. We look forward to seeing the positive impact of this work as we help kids thrive – in school and beyond. Read more about the Chapter One partnership, here: https://ow.ly/ahZO50TXUbB #JustPurpose #ChildrensRights #EducationEquality #LiteracyMatters #EducationForAll #Community #Literacy #Storytelling

⚖️ Google successfully defends trade mark infringement in relation to "YouTube Shorts" Today, the High Court of England and Wales delivered judgment in Shorts International Limited v Google LLC. Google successfully defended claims of trade mark infringement and passing off in relation to Google's use of the name "YouTube Shorts". In a 86-page judgment, Deputy Judge Michael Tappin KC ruled that Shorts International's trade mark for "SHORTSTV" is invalid for most goods and services because it is descriptive of both short films and short-form audiovisual content. Shorts International's remaining trade mark registrations were not infringed by Google because consumers are not likely to be confused. Claims for passing off also failed. Fieldfisher partner, Nick Rose who successfully acted for Google said: "This is a comprehensive victory and we are incredibly proud to have supported Google in defending the claims. This decision is one of the first UK cases to consider confusion in the context of online platforms, and is likely to be very influential in how the Court considers the descriptiveness of trade marks in the UK." Congratulations to our Intellectual Property team members who also represented Google: Verity Ellis, Katie Warner, Tash Brown, Fiona Sellers and Milly Bolton #intellectualproperty #ip #google

🛡️🔬 Navigating compliance in the Health and Life Sciences sector can be challenging, with evolving regulations, and complex requirements involving high risk data. Our upcoming in person roundtable in our London offices is aimed at life science businesses and it will provide valuable insights on how to stay ahead and ensure your business meets key governance, risk assessment, and implementation obligations related to using AI in this sector. This session will explore practical steps, important timelines, and best practices for ensuring compliance, with opportunities to discuss industry practice with peers in other life science businesses. Whether you are in the early stages of planning or need to refine your compliance strategy, this roundtable will provide the tools and knowledge to help you move forward with confidence. Our series of in person roundtables provide an opportunity for life science businesses to discuss key privacy issues. Your speakers and key contacts for this session are Sarah Tedstone, Kate Partridge and Nuria Pastor. Click 'View event' below and register using the 'Event link'. #LifeSciences #Data #DataPrivacy #Biometrics #BiometricsData #AI #Health #Regulations #Compliance 

❤️💛💚 This year, we proudly celebrated Black History Month with a series of events and activities aimed honouring and uplifting Black voices and stories. We kicked off the month with an inspiring talk by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE, who shared her extraordinary life story about coming to England from Trinidad in the 60s to becoming a BBC children's presenter, facing racism and rising above. On the screens across our UK offices, we spotlighted the incredible achievements of Black British pioneers across various fields, shedding light on their significant contributions to society. Lastly, we shared plantain chips and chin chin across our UK offices as a small but meaningful way to honour and celebrate Black history and the global influence on Black culture. #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistoryMonth2024 #ReclaimingNarratives #BHM

The Fieldfisher Employee Ownership Solutions team welcomes the Government's support for the Employee Ownership sector, through targeted reforms to the requirements for claiming the EOT tax relief announced today as part of the Autumn Budget. The benefits to business, employees and the UK economy are acknowledged by retaining the current 100% CGT relief on the sale of shares to a qualifying EOT. This relief is made all the more valuable by the higher rates of CGT announced in the Budget. The reforms, which come into effect for disposals of shares to qualifying EOTs from 30 October 2024, bring into law the changes recommended by the responses to the consultation on the taxation of EOTs published last year. As market leading advisors to the EO sector, the reforms reflect our long-standing approach to structuring transactions in a manner which ensures a meaningful transition of control from founders to the employees via the EOT model. The new trustee independence requirement reflects generally accepted best practice within the sector and we welcome the simplification brought in by the express relief on distributions to EOT trustees to fund the acquisition of shares from founders. New provisions that require EOT trustees to take reasonable steps to ensure that the price they pay for the shares does not exceed market value will reinforce the need for trustees to seek a professional independent valuation as part of the transition process. The package of reforms announced today signals a commitment from the Government to support genuine EO, ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of this model of business ownership. Neil Palmer James de le Vingne Jess Kilkelly eoa Graeme Nuttall OBE

⏯️🌐 Missed the latest live webinar from our International Data and Privacy Team? Following the success of parts one and two of Fieldfisher's Data and Privacy Team's webinar series, part three continues with the session 'What rights do data subjects have under the AI Act and are they different from the GDPR?'. Join speakers Sarah Tedstone, Thorsten Ihler, and Johannes Baur for this session on demand: https://ow.ly/7ojJ50TWrP6 Fieldfisher Germany #AI #DataPrivacy #ArtificialIntelligence #EURegulations #GDPR #AIAct

🎙️ 🎧 In the latest Data and Privacy Matters podcast, Fieldfisher’s Nuria Pastor, Charley Guile, and Imogen Boffin break down key legal updates from September, including: • New standard contractual clauses (SCCs) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulatory guidance. • AI regulations: California’s AI new laws and NIST's cybersecurity program. • CJEU legal rulings on gender identity and data breach enforcement. • Fines and enforcement activity in the EU and the UK. This episode is packed with practical insights for businesses assessing data protection risks and mitigation measures. Don't miss it! Listen here: https://ow.ly/1qHx50TW2WT #DataProtection #AI #TechReg #CyberSecurity #DigitalMarketsAct #CookieCompliance #TechLaw