The Legal Brief - 9th February 2022

Taking it back to April 2021 now, we have seen the reappearance of the Colin v Cuthbert debate within the commercial news this week following a settlement agreement between both parties. For those of you who do not remember, Major UK Supermarket M&S found themselves suing competitors Aldi over their similarly looking infamous ‘Colin the Caterpillar’ cake. Essentially here, it was deemed that Aldi’s doppelganger version ‘Cuthbert’ infringed on its trademark rights, due to the possibility of customers associating the two, leading them to believe that they are of the same standards. Many argued that other supermarket chains such as the Tesco’s, Asda and Sainsburys also have ‘Colin lookalikes,’ however, - unlike Cuthbert, - these ultimately possess differentiating features from the original Colin.

Fast-forwarding to this week now, both ALDI and M&S have reached a settlement within court. A spokesperson for M&S has stated that “the objective of the claim was to protect the IP (intellectual property) in (their) Colin the Caterpillar cake and (they) are very pleased with the outcome.” Similarly here, a quote taken from an Aldi spokesperson has stated that “Cuthbert is free and looking forward to seeing all his fans again very soon.” Despite the news of the ending of legal proceedings, the agreement of which has been made is ‘confidential’ and so, as of yet, we do not have any details regarding this.

Following this national debate that triggered the #freeCuthbert movement across social media, you would assume that this would be enough to end Aldi’s desire to copy its competitors products. This however is not the case. At present the debate surrounding the ‘Christmas gin’ between the same two companies is still ongoing.?

Written by Hebe Shepherd

The British Retail Consortium has announced that they expect consumer spending to sink in 2022 as shoppers contend with the increased cost of living and less disposable income. The Consortium, which represents 5,000 British businesses, warns that the combination of increased inflation as well as rising utilities costs throughout the next year will force customers to tighten the purse strings and focus on the essentials.

Overall, spending growth in January on non-essential items was halved compared to December. Meanwhile the money spent on groceries rose 10%, marking the smallest increase since April 2021.

This warning comes days after Ofgem lifted the maximum rate suppliers can charge for an average dual-fuel energy tariff. This means that some households will face up to ￡693 increases for energy bills in 2022. Acknowledged as ‘worrying’ by Ofgem, this is the largest increase on record and is expected to drive millions of households into fuel poverty this year. This mirrors the significant increase in those experience food insecurity. The Food Foundation recently released figures showing that 4.7 million, or 8.8%, adults in January experienced food insecurity, compared to 3.9 million adults in July last year. The Foundation suggests that these figures are a signal that it will only get worse.

To combat a decline into poverty and insecurity for many, last week Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a ￡9 billion package to offset fuel increases. The aid will give 80% households ￡200 and will be recouped by adding smaller amounts to annual bills over the next five years. Similarly, the National Grid and Octopus are teaming up on a pilot scheme to incentivise customers to reduce consumption. While the scheme aims to limit consumption to stop the need for new power stations, it may also be of help to families struggling to make ends meet as utility bills skyrocket.

Ultimately, despite the government support, there is anxiety around the effect reduced spending may have on post-covid economic recovery. Last month, both spending and consumer confidence plummeted, suggesting that recovery may begin to stall this year as millions of families feel the strain of a combination of rises in inflation and living cost increases. How far government efforts will go to offset these impacts remains to be seen.

Written by Kate Gregory

Over a year after AstraZeneca first started its major worldwide offensive against Coronavirus, the company is set to release figures for its first profits from their vaccine. This may come as a surprise to some people as, for so long, the British Pharmaceutical giant was offering their jab at cost price.

This is due mainly to the company making deals in South America and Asia, whereby the vaccine is sold at a slight profit, allowing for gains compared with the prices offered originally in Europe and North America. Sale of these vaccines are expected to propel the Anglo-Swedish firm to their highest ever annual revenues.

This would echo AstraZeneca's own guidance. When announcing their half-year results, the company did state they were expecting a percentage revenue increase somewhere around the low twenties.

AstraZeneca, a relative minnow amongst vaccine producing companies before the pandemic, have made a name for themselves and, thanks to their Covid vaccine and $39bn takeover of Alexion, a rare diseases specialist, now looks set for a prolonged period of growth. They have even signalled that their Covid Vaccine and Antibody treatments would be split off into a new division of the company.

This all sounds very positive, although does come with a slight feeling of injustice, as these vaccines, offered to more developed countries at cost, have been used to make a profit in less-developed countries. Ironically, the countries who could probably afford to pay to vaccinate their populations managed to achieve the lower price. Much as you cannot begrudge AstraZeneca from making a profit (all the other Pharama-giants have made a killing), it might be worth questioning why this profit wasn't made from the countries who could afford to pay a little more.

Written by Duncan Balcon

This week on the?Legally Speaking Podcast ???Podcast, our host?Robert Hanna?welcomes?Nick Eziefula.

Nick is a partner at one of the UK’s leading media and entertainment law firms,?Simkins LLP.?Nick specialises in commercial law and intellectual property.

Nick is passionate about music and is an artist himself. Nick has released several albums, touring internationally. Alongside this, Nick also works in technology, providing advice on legal and commercial on software licensing, e-commerce as well as data protection.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

??What it’s like to work in UK’s leading media and entertainment law firm

??His experiences as an artist, Essa – releasing albums and touring internationally

??His single ‘Justice in 2020’ and what is it significance and message to the world

??The activities of ‘Power Up’ as an organisation aimed at boosting careers of black creators and how others can get involved?

??His passion in promoting the black music industry

??How he combines his work as a Partner with his work as an artist?

Sponsored by?Clio - Cloud-Based Legal Technology

ou may have seen recently that LinkedIn has begun the roll out of its new Audio rooms, allowing users to engage with each other in more ways on the platform.

Our Founder,?Robert Hanna, was chosen to have early access to this feature, due to his networking prowess on LinkedIn, and he wants to share this opportunity with you...

Robert will be running discussions via LinkedIn Audio for the legal community and if anyone wants to collaborate with him, we would absolutely love to hear from you. LinkedIn has over 800 million users so there is great potential with this feature and platform!?

Please get in touch, with your idea for collaboration, via?[email protected]

Banking & Finance Associate (REF)?- Global Law Firm - 3-6 PQE (London )

Banking & Leveraged Finance Associate?- Global Law Firm - 3-6?PQE (London)

Competition Associate?- Global Law Firm?- 3-4 PQE (London )

Corporate M&A Associate UK?- Global Law Firm - 1-5 PQE (London)

Corporate US Associate?- Global Law Firm - 3-6?PQE (London)

Information & Media Litigation Associate (Reputation Management)?- Global Law Firm - 2-4 PQE (London )

Life Sciences / Commercialisation Associate (Non-Contentious)?- Global Law Firm - 1-4?PQE (London)

Private Equity Associates x 3?- Global Law Firm - 2-4 PQE (London)

Real Estate Associate?- Global Law Firm - 1-3?PQE (London)

US Capital Markets Associate?- Global Law Firm - 3+ PQE (London)

For further information, or to get your questions answered, please send a message to?Robert Hanna?or?Hannah Foley.

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Join us every week on 'The Legally Speaking Club' where we talk to new and exciting guests:

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This week's 'The Legal Brief' is Produced by?Hebe Shepherd, Kate Gregory?and?Duncan Balcon