ContractStore Legal Business Blog

Keep an eye on your intellectual property rights

From next year, possible website domain names are going to multiply wildly, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body that oversees the structure of the Internet, plans to open up the market for domain name extensions, that is, the .com or .uk part of a web address.

The possibilities for new addresses will be almost endless. Examples include city domains such as .berlin, .paris, .london and .nyc, and themed domains such as .music, .legal or .shop.

I’ve always thought that .om domains would be great for relaxation sites, and I’ve mentally renamed several site “.con”.

This new development will also open up a field day for domain squatters, or looked at another way, an opportunity for entrepreneurs to sell valuable new domains – or more troubling for some, new variations on existing domains.

It’s potentially an additional cost for trademark owners, although with so many possibilities name owners will have to draw the line somewhere. There are rules in existence to protect copyrighted names, so there would be some protection against domain name takeover, but its also likely that users will need to pay more attention to the extensions and this adds to the information burden.

A recent survey of consumers (carried out by The Future Laboratory on behalf of domain name registrar Gandi.net) revealed that many did not yet know of the impending changes, and their reactions were not very positive. It was generally felt that this will add to confusion and difficulty in using the internet.

Business owners need to draw up a plan to acquire the extensions that will be most important, and aim to get them quickly before enterprising gold-rushers grab the names and hold them to ransom.

You might of course decide you want to take the opportunity presented to buy up some domains yourself. You may even buy an entire domain, for example, .london so that anyone wanting to use that suffix would have to come to you. But if you do, remember that there will be contests over names and undoubtedly some test cases will eventually emerge. Do you want to be one of them? If not, make sure you are protected.

Browse ContractStore’s Internet Contracts collection here.

Take a look at our Intellectual Property collection here.

Yesterday in the High Court a police officer, whose anonymous blog, Night Jack, recently won the Orwell prize for political writing,

As with most sectors, UK solicitors have an independent body overseeing their activities and ensuring they behave themselves. But in a recent poll conducted by ComRes, most people don’t know who this regulator is.

Apparently, this was interpreted as “a clear indication that the public do not feel they have a body to which they can turn in relation to legal services”.

Many thought it was the Law Society, and most who made a guess said it was the government. Are you one of the few people who knows its in fact the Solicitors Regulation Authority? The SRA commissioned the poll and are likely to be planning some marketing and brand awareness workshops as we write.

There are times when it

“Mad on Borrowing” is an anagram of

Whenever there is a business turn-down, the risk of insolvency increases

One of our recent customers contacted us for help while creating a bespoke childcare company, Flying Tots Ltd, predominantly to care for the children of airline staff.

After carefully researching crew and pilots needs for over a year, Sharon Bastien found that airline staff lose out on work due to a lack of childcare. Sharon also discovered that because airline crew work ‘irregular hours’ from day-to-day, they could not be accommodated by most agencies.

So the enterprising Ms Bastien designed a unique company, employing professional, flexible nannies to care for children of airline staff. The company will also serve high-flying career professionals whose work demands ‘out of the norm’ or long hours. Clients use the service on an ‘adhoc’ basis, as and when needed.

The considerable press coverage on the business has been very positive and has generated many enquiries. Sharon got in touch to share her story about how ContractStore has helped her get the business off the ground:

“I found ContractStore’s website in 2008 and I used it to prepare two contracts, one for the clients who required a nanny, and one for the nannies I employ. I asked lawyer Giles Dixon if he would kindly review my documents. I did not anticipate that these contracts would require so many clauses and details, of which I was not even aware. However, on speaking to Giles over a period of time I was able to obtain two excellent contracts, perfect for the job that meets all the legal obligations and were great value.

“I am very passionate about excellent customer service inside and outside my business. Fortunately I have never had to deal with lawyers in the past, but after speaking with Mr Dixon he made me feel comfortable and at ease. I felt I was always receiving his undivided attention and legal skills – excellent customer service in fact. Our business relationship has grown and I can recommend anyone to use ContractStore to become their ongoing legal advisory service like I have.

“The specialist services we provide are for working parents, whose job requires them to work a shift pattern. These are parents are experiencing great difficulty with finding childcare when having to attend work, for long periods at a time. Flying Tots, now with the introduction of our service to high career workers and business professionals ‘takes off’ to a flying start.”

Visit the Flying Tots website: http://www.flyingtots.co.uk/

Francis Ayley, President of Fourth Corner Exchange based in the Pacific Northwest, USA (www.FourthCornerExchange.com) wrote to us a few days ago:

“I commend you on the quality of your legal forms. I have written many business contracts over the years, and the forms I purchased from you really worked well for me, in a small emergency situation where I needed a contract immediately and my usual corporate lawyer was unavailable (out of the country).

“I must have searched twenty other websites before I chose yours. Well laid out, easily accessible, the right information available before I buy. Excellent. Well Done. I will visit again and recommend you to my business friends in the USA and Europe.”

This was especially generous as Francis initially had problems paying for the document he wanted as his purchase coincided with a site outage at Worldpay. He nonetheless was kind enough to find time to compliment us.

Fourth Corner Exchange is a very interesting site where people can exchange goods and services using ‘life dollars’ instead of money – they can instead trade work for work or swap things.

Thanks Francis and best of luck with your enterprise – and stay in touch!

Councils were told today to cut out 200 jargon words such as “revenue stream”, “stakeholder” and “incentivising” so that ordinary people can understand them. They have compiled a list of words and phrases that councils should eliminate from their vocabulary.

Workers should not “facilitate” they should “help” and instead of “fast-tracking” something they should just “speed it up”

Certain words are so meaningless they can be discarded altogether according to the LGA. The culprits include; contestability, synergies and cascading.

Chairman of the Local Government Association, Councillor Margaret Eaton, said: “The public sector must not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have ‘coterminous, stakeholder engagement’ when we could just ‘talk to people’ instead?

“Councils have a duty, not only to provide value for money to local people, but also to tell people what they get for the tax they pay. People would be furious if they have no idea of what services their cash is paying for and how they should get to use them.”

Unfortunately, the list shows that when local authorities talk of ‘meaningful consultation’, it does not meant consultation, but ‘talking to people’.