News

The December issue of the Bloomsbury Family Law Briefing is now available for subscribers. 

Case Summaries

CAO v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] UKSC (NI) 32, [2024] 3 WLR 847 – Asylum refused by First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, appealed against by the mother applicant for asylum: Nigerian mother and children (aged 16 and 12 in 2018). Order of FTT restored, they had given sufficient account of the welfare of the children concerned.

Re M (Children: Contact In Prison) [2024] EWCA Civ 1104, [2024] 4 WLR 87 (24 September 2024) – Lieven J had made a contact order for the mother to take children aged 12 and 10 to prison where the father was serving a sentence of imprisonment for rape of their mother, his wife. Her appeal was allowed and remitted for rehearing. The judge had not clearly evaluated the Children Act 1989, s 1 checklist, and the factors in relation to domestic abuse in Family Procedure Rules 2010 PD12J.

Re Hazeltine [2024] EWHC 2982 (Fam) (21 November 2024), Cobb J – Committal in respect of six proved contempts of a father of two children aged 12 and 9. His contempt in the face of the court was insulting and abusing of judges, disruptive of the court proceedings, and he seemed unwilling to recognise the authority of the court. 

EF v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [2024] EWHC 3004 (Fam) (22 November 2024), Theis J – Application by EF, a man, for a declaration that it is lawful for him to use an embryo created using his sperm and his recently deceased wife’s eggs in treatment with a surrogate. Application allowed and deceased wife’s consent treated as given.

General Dental Council v KK & Anor [2024] EWHC 3053 (Fam) (25 November 2024), Knowles J – Local authority passed on family courts material from care proceedings concerning a dentist KK for disciplinary proceedings by the General Dental Council without court order. Steps taken to repudiate and correct this error, and a fresh – lawful (per Family Procedure Rules 2010, r 12.73) – release of documents order made. Possible contempt proceedings should not be pursued.

Moss v Upper Tribunal [2024] EWCA Civ 1414, [2024] WLR(D) 499 (15 November 2024). In allowing the appeal of Mr Moss (M) Coulson LJ proposed a basis for unifying principles set out on non-party release of documents across all civil proceedings as derived from Guardian News and Media v Westminster and Cape Intermediate (both considered in the article).

Proceedings in private: contempt and Administration of Justice Act 1960 

The Law Commission is consulting on contempt of court. It has published a Consultation Paper 262 on Contempt of Court (9 July 2024). This article looks at the law of contempt, important to family lawyers, their clients and to journalists concerned in family proceedings in Administration of Justice Act 1960 (AJA 1960), s 12(1) and (4). AJA 1960, s 12(1) applies to ‘publication’ in respect of all proceedings heard ‘in private’, especially children proceedings where publication may be in contempt of court. AJA 1960, s 12(4) enables rule makers to make exceptions to proceedings automatically in contempt, as Family Procedure Rules 2010, Pt 12 Chapter 7 has done. Operation of AJA 1960, s 12(1) and the working of the AJA 1960, s 12(4) exceptions and their application in practice are explained in the article.

Family Court Reports Vol 3 Pt 7 (30 November 2024) is now available for subscribers. 

The following cases have been reported in 3 FCR 7: 

A & I, Re (Children: Appeal: Relocation & Joint Lives) [2024] EWHC 1824 (Fam); 3 FCR 711

BI v EN [2024] EWFC 200; 3 FCR 729

MB v CD [2024] EWHC 751 (Fam); 3 FCR 762

P v Q & F (Child: Legal Parentage) [2024] EWCA Civ 878; 3 FCR 774

V v W (Jurisdiction: Dissolution of Pacte Civil de Solidarite) [2024] EWFC 111; 3 FCR 792

W & Ors (Implementation of Adoption Plan Pending Appeal) [2024] EWCA Civ 837; 3 FCR 818

The latest update to the Bloomsbury Income Tax Annual is now live for subscribers. This takes into account the provisions laid out in the Budget statement on 30 October, including the abolition of the remittance basis of taxation, changes to the income limit for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment , and the end of the furnished holiday letting rules from 6 April 2025. A summary of the updates is here. 

Laura Byrne BL provides in-depth case analysis of DPP v WC in the December issue of Irish Criminal Law for our Criminal Law subscribers. This is an interesting Supreme Court judgment considering disclosure of counselling records. Charleton J's judgment looks at a lot of other considerations in terms of protections of the complainant, the conduct of examinations in criminal trials, the law on cross examination on previous sexual history and prohibition applications in general in criminal prosecutions. 

Key words: 

Charleton J – 24 October 2024 – Supreme Court – [2024] IESC 48

disclosure – judicial review – prohibition – previous sexual history – right to a fair trial – relevance – remoteness – duty of the trial judge – privacy – Victims Directive – counselling records

Issue 49 of Compensation Purchase and Compensation Service is now available for subscribers. 

Release 34 of Irish Copyright and Design Law is now live for subscribers of Intellectual Property and IT Law. This release continues to provide a convenient and accessible summary of the main developments relating to Copyright Law as they are likely to affect Irish legal practitioners. 

This release contains updates in the following areas:

Chapter 1 – discussion on Wright and Others v BTC Core and Others [2023] EWCA Civ 868 and around CAD designs and artistic copyright. There’s also new material added around the OECD AI Principles and The European Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and how this impacts the AI/Intellectual Property interface. A new paragraph has been added around The Treaty on Intellectual Property Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge.

Chapter 2 – includes updates around literary works predicated on historical events, with commentary on Pasternak v Prescott [2022] EWHC 2695 (Ch) and Evans v John Lewis plc and another [2023] EWHC 766, and also an update regarding musical works.

Chapter 3 – commentary on Lidl Great Britain Ltd v Tesco Stores Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 262 and artistic copyright.

Chapter 8 – developments within the field of infringement and artistic copyright.

Chapter 10 - Warner Music UK Ltd v TuneIn Inc [2023] EWHC 2875 and copyright infringement and how the parties contested the basis upon which damages should be calculated. There’s also commentary on Sky and Another v AirLie [2024] and broadcast licences.

Chapter 16 – updates around reservation of title and an Australian decision in Matter of Re Holdco Company (Administrators Appointed)(No.2) [2021] FCA 377. New section regarding Ciaran Donovan and King Kong Media and money laundering.

Chapter 17 – updates pertaining to Art 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive and the case law therein.

Chapter 19 – new section titled The Provisional Agreements of 5 December 2023, the Amending Regulation and the Recast Designs Directive – Background and Development.

In the Autumn Budget Statement there were some changes announced to Capital Gains Tax rates which may impact SEIS/EIS investors. A summary of changes has been added to the homepage of Venture Capital Tax Reliefs.

Our Irish Child and Family Law service is updated at the start of each month with case summaries and analysis of recent changes to legislation. Our December article features a discussion around the Passage of the Family Courts Bill 2022 (Bill 113 of 2022), where Colm Lynch BL offers insight to the aims of the Bill, the guiding principles and subsequent debate. 

Practitioners should prepare for an overhaul of the family law system as it currently stands in any event, as it seems likely that the District and Circuit Courts that deal with family law matters may be changing very soon.

Vol. 40 No. 4 of Journal of Professional Negligence is now available for subscribers. 

In this issue: 

Article Summary

Where’s the limit? A recent contrasting pair of lawyers’ liability cases on duty and limitation

Case Digest

Case Digest: Disciplinary & Regulatory

Case Commentaries: Damage to leased property: the Supreme Court restores orthodoxy

Scottish Case Commentary: Group Proceedings, Negligence and Res Judicata in Scotland

Book Review

The November issue of the Bloomsbury IP/IT Law Briefing is now available for subscribers. 

The UK Supreme Court has published its judgment in SkyKick UK Ltd & Anor v Sky Ltd & Ors (Rev1) [2024] UKSC 36. The Court upheld SkyKick’s appeal and found that the first instance judge was entitled to find that SKY’s trade marks were applied for in part in bad faith.

In Extreme Networks Ltd v Extreme E Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1386, the Court of Appeal has reversed a High Court ruling and reinstated a decision of the hearing officer in an opposition case. The case concerned the comparison of services in class 41.

In the Patents Court, Mr Justice Richards declined to grant a declaration that a willing licensor and a willing licensee would enter into a short-term cross-licence in his judgment in Lenovo Group Ltd & Ors v Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) & Anor [2024] EWHC 2941 (Pat).

In Pfizer Inc v UniQure Biopharma BV [2024] EWHC 2672 (Pat), His Honour Judge Hacon upheld the validity of a patent relating to the Factor IX protein, rejecting an argument that it was obvious.

Deputy High Court Judge Campbell Forsyth found that the WaterRower water resistant rowing machines are not works of artistic craftsmanship within section 4(1)(c) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (WaterRower (UK) Ltd v Liking Ltd (t/a Topiom) [2024] EWHC 2806 (IPEC)).

In Thom Browne Inc & Anor v adidas AC & Ors [2024] EWHC 2990 (Ch), Mrs Justice Joanna Smith found that various products by fashion designer Thom Browne featuring a four-bar design did not infringe certain position trade marks owned by adidas. She also invalidated eight of the adidas marks that were asserted.

Master Teverson granted Icelandic fishing company Samherji summary judgment on its claims for passing off, copyright infringement and malicious falsehood against an artist, Oddur (or Odee) Fridriksson in Samherji HF v Fridriksson [2024] EWHC 2892 (Ch).

In the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, Enterprise Judge David Stone found in favour of the claimant in a passing off claim concerning the name WASH WIGGLE & WAG for a dog grooming business (Thurgood v Laight & Anor [2024] EWHC 2947 (IPEC)).

Finally, the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court has held that proceedings brought in a national court before the UPC transitional period do not prevent the withdrawal of an opt-out (AIM Sport Development AG v Supponor Oy and others UPC_CoA_489/2023 and UPC_CoA_500/2023).