Chinwag guest blog: Be friendly - carry a stick

Business Names and Information Disclosure - a summary of the issues

Alex Chapman — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:04:11 +0100

I often get asked about disclaimers and notices in email footers and the requirements for providing infromation in web sites and emails. Its something I have commented on before on Chinwag and elsewhere but I thought it would be good to refresh the topic.

Celebrity voice-a-likes

Alex Chapman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:35:06 +0100

An interesting UKNM question yesterday:

Basically what is the deal with using an impersonator to do celebrity voice-a-likes on a website?

In the UK there is no automatic right of "personality" (unlike other countries - such as Germany).

However the law does protect against "false endorsement" - through the law of 'Passing Off'.

Google Adwords trade mark policy change - has the law changed?

Alex Chapman — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:58:45 +0100

So I have just received this:

-----Original Message-----

From: Google [mailto:trademark-policy-revision@google.com]

When hackers strike

Alex Chapman — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:55:48 +0000

A question was asked on UKNM today.

I answered and wanted to share the reply.

The question was of a person who had her Tiscali email account hacked. The perpetrator forwarded private emails from her account to others and caused huge distress and embrassement. Is Tiscali obliged to to provide information concerning these acts?

Trade marks are property - treat them that way.

Alex Chapman — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:54:33 +0000

I see that Google is getting it in the neck again over trade marks. It seems it can't win - if it takes action to deal with trade mark infringers it is criticised as being over zealous and if it doesn't it is seen as being irresponsible.

I'm not going to add weight to any side of the argument here but it might help to explain a bit more about what trade marks are and what they do.