A long-standing and valuable patent, protecting sustained release versions of a market leading anti-psychotic drug, has been declared invalid due to the absence of any inventive steps in formulation that would not have been ‘obvious’ to a skilled pharmacology team more than 20 years ago.
A landowner has been awarded more than £5.8 million compensation under the Electricity Act 1989 after its development plans were scotched by an overhead power cable crossing its land. The Upper Tribunal (UT) ruled that the cable’s presence had reduced the land’s value close to
Covent Garden Market employers have triumphed in a long-running employment dispute with five registered porters who argued that they were entitled to be paid porterage fees in respect of the toil of their unregistered colleagues. The Court of Appeal ruled that such an interpretation of
A property investor has been awarded almost £100,000 compensation after an end-of-terrace house on one of Britain’s most deprived housing estates was compulsorily acquired by a local authority as part of a regeneration scheme. The Upper Tribunal ruled that the pay-out represented a fair assessment
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act has now received Royal Assent. The Act is wide ranging. It contains many new measures, such as giving shareholders more say on directors’ pay, making reforms to Employment Tribunal procedures, establishing a new Competition and Markets Authority to tackle
A local authority’s controversial proposals to outsource swathes of its public duties to the private sector have been given the green light by the High Court. Ruling that, save in one respect, a local resident’s challenge to the plans had been brought too late, the
A company has triumphed in its appeal against a £900 penalty imposed in respect of late filing of its annual return after the First-Tier Tribunal accepted that its principal director’s illness during the whole of the relevant period amounted to a reasonable excuse for the
In a case which underlines the need for precision in the drafting of construction contracts, a plethora of apparently conflicting documents in respect of a major hydro-electricity project necessitated the intervention of the High Court in order to achieve some clarity. Following a tendering process,
In the context of a ‘somewhat chequered’ public tendering exercise, the High Court has ordered disclosure of evidence to an unsuccessful bidder who claims that the process was undermined by fundamental errors and unfairness. The court ruled that the disclosures were essential to ensure a
In a decision with wide implications for expatriate workers, the Court of Appeal has ruled that a salesman who is seeking compensation following the termination of his agency agreement must have his case heard under Spanish law, notwithstanding that it is perceived as being less
