Ireland IP & Technology Law Blog : Dublin Lawyers & Attorneys for Intellectual Property, Communications & Information Technology Law in Ireland, U.S. & England

During the week, Taoiseach Brian Cowen called for a review of EU copyright legislation saying that the balance between the rights holder and the consumer needs to be examined so as to ensure that innovative companies operating in the digital environment are not disadvantaged against competitors. The Taoiseach said that the new digital media world is a sector where the European Union should try to carve out a lead for itself and that issues such as intellectual property and particularly the use of copyright material need to be looked at again.

 The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation will also be reviewing Ireland’s domestic application of copyright legislation to identify any changes Ireland should make within the existing EU framework.                                                                           

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A recent judgment delivered in October this year by the English High Court (Technology & Construction Court) in the case of Ericsson Limited and Hutchinson 3G UK Limited illustrates:
 
 

(i)                   the importance of giving careful consideration to the financial and legal  consequences of contract termination or expiry and the extent of the parties responsibilities to each other on exit;

(ii)                 the need to invest the same degree of commercial and legal consideration into drafting contract amendments as tends to be invested in the original deal;

(iii)                the risks inherent in treating the ‘front end’ legal terms and conditions and the schedules of a contract in isolation.

It can be speculative and, to an extent, counter intuitive to focus on the end of a commercial relationship at the outset but it can be costly not to. Investing resource in proactive management of contractual rights and careful management of contract amendments is also money well spent.

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Yesterday's Budget saw the patent royalty tax exemption abolished as announced in the National Recovery Plan 2011 - 2014. Similarly, the tax exemption for distributions made by companies from (previously) exempt patent income was also abolished.

Abolition takes effect from 24 November 2010 - the date on which the Plan was launched.

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On 24 November 2010, the UK’s Information Commissioner issued two organisations with substantial fines for serious breaches of the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

Hertfordshire County Council was fined £100,000 for two successive data protection breaches where council employees sent two faxes containing highly sensitive personal information to the wrong recipients on two separate occasions. The council reported both breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The Commissioner ruled that, after the first breach occurred, the council did not take sufficient steps to reduce the likelihood of another breach occurring.

An employment services company, A4e, was also fined £60,000 following the loss of unencrypted laptop containing sensitive personal information relating to 24,000 people who had used community legal advice centres in Hull and Leicester. The company reported the incident to the ICO, and also notified the people whose data could have been accessed. The Commissioner found that the company had not taken reasonable steps to avoid the loss of the data when it issued the employee with the unencrypted laptop, despite knowing the amount and type of data that would be processed on it.

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner does not have equivalent legal powers to issue large penalties for serious contraventions of the Data Protection Acts. At present only offences under the Data Protection Acts attract financial penalties, the maximum of which is €250,000 (or 10% of turnover if the offender is a body corporate) for offences relating to unsolicited marketing messages. 

However, the Report of the Irish Data Protection Review Group, published earlier this year, recommended the introduction of legislation providing for penalties for serious contraventions of the Data Protection Acts. 

It will be interesting to see if any new equivalent legislation is introduced here. 

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