Despite Brexit uncertainty with the launch of Europe’s central patent court, Dominic Carman finds plenty for IP litigators to get their teeth into Case volumes in intellectual property (IP) remain, to borrow a phrase, strong and stable. ‘We’ve not seen much variation in terms of the number of cases in front of the UK Patents …
Continue reading “Market Report: IP Disputes – Strong and stable”
Twenty years on since the Woolf Reforms, Dominic Carman assesses mediation’s slow but steady march to the disputes mainstream Mediation is big business. That much is evident from the 2018 Mediation Audit published biennially by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). It confirms that there were 12,000 mediations – up by 20% in two …
As the eurozone economy slows down after six years of uninterrupted growth, Switzerland is an anxious spectator. Amid increased concerns among the EU27 over the potential impact of a disorderly Brexit and the halt to quantitative easing from the European Central Bank’s asset-purchasing programme, Europe’s big three are bracing themselves while Switzerland sits in the …
Continue reading “Switzerland – Between a rock and a hard place”
Donald Trump is still in office, Brexit is still about to happen, but the global economy in 2018 provided few of the seismic shocks that have reverberated offshore in recent years. Uncertainty remains a continuous theme, although there were none of the revelations like the Panama Papers of 2016 and the Paradise Papers in 2017, …
Continue reading “Offshore leaders’ year in review: Under pressure”
The inferno of disputes arising from the financial crisis is finally being reduced to embers. Although this may have caused the volume of commercial litigation in London to plateau, disputes in the main Caribbean offshore centres continue to be very buoyant: several firms report significant double-digit revenue growth in their dispute resolution teams over the …
Carlyle, Tchenguiz and Crociani are cases repeatedly cited by the leading players in Jersey and Guernsey as shorthand for big disputes and big fees. These cases just keep on giving: all three are now subject to further appeals or related proceedings, prolonging their life in litigation terms. Elsewhere, the mood among local dispute resolution and …
The good times are back in Europe – at least for now – making growth the word on every managing partner’s lips. According to the International Monetary Fund, last year’s European recovery was an ‘engine of global trade and economic growth’. Across the EU27, annual GDP grew between 1.5% and 5% – the biggest figures …
Despite Brexit, costs pressures and the loss of financial crisis work, reports of the commercial Bar’s decline are overblown. We identify the sets and the silks redefining the modern Bar Everyone in the global business community seems to know that many of Britain’s brightest lawyers practise at the commercial Bar, helping to maintain London’s position …
‘The Middle East. We will try to make it better, but it is a troubled place’: the words of Donald Trump as he announced the recent military strikes targeting Syrian president Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons facilities. Although there is some truth to his sweeping statement, most of the over 400 million citizens in the 17 …
‘A dense population in extreme distress inhabits an island’ – that is how Disraeli began to define the Irish Question in the Commons in 1844. Without much hyperbole, it also defines the current state of the UK. Over halfway through the two-year time limit prescribed by article 50, but with no Brexit deal in sight, …
Continue reading “The Brexit countdown – The Irish question”
