Bird & Bird LLP

Bird & Bird in an international law firm that is well-known for its strategic focus on industries being disrupted by technology. While we do not practice US law, we have unrivalled expertise in advising on matters ranging from smaller innovative projects to some of the largest, most complex and ground-breaking transactions and disputes of recent years in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

We're excited to share insights from our lawyers working at the forefront of legal developments in the technology and media sectors. With our Digital Business blog, our aim is to bring you insightful content about how the law can affect your digital business, or the expansion of your physical business into the digital realm. Or, take a look at our Media Writes blog where our media & sports specialists are pairing up with our tech experts and clients to create insights on how tech developments are affecting media & sports.

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Latest from Bird & Bird LLP

The geo-blocking obligation will now become a firm part of the regulator’s enforcement criteria, in addition to the previously defined criteria. The intended start date for this obligation is 1 October 2021 (the opening of the market), noting that there will likely be a brief transitional period. So, unlicensed operators will need to take action accordingly, in order to avoid enforcement, and potentially impact a license application. The geo-blocking obligation also applies during the so-called…
On 17 August 2021, the Chinese central government released the long-awaited Regulations on Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) Security Protection (CII Regulation), which took effect on 1 September 2021. In this article, we highlight the key provisions of the CII Regulation and set out our observations on the regime. Background The concept of CII was first introduced into law by the Cyber Security Law (CSL), which dedicated a section to the security protection of CII when…
The finding is significant because it means that the threshold for potential defamation liability is met by the hosts of social media pages in relation to third party comments on those pages even if they have not seen those comments.  Importantly, the Court did not make any finding as to whether or not a defence of innocent dissemination is available to hosts.  The defence is likely to be available to hosts where they are not…
The Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled a boom in the UK’s video game industry.  A report by The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (“UKIE”) published in March 2021 valued the industry at a record £7 billion in 2020, making it the largest in Europe[1]. To help the UK gaming industry compete in the global marketplace, the UK government introduced Video Games Tax Relief (“VGTR“) in April 2014 to incentivise video game development companies (“VGDCs“)…
The digital platform Ageras A/S (“Ageras”) is a bidding platform which facilitates contact between providers of accounting and bookkeeping services and potential customers. The platform operated with an automatised price standardisation mechanism, in which providers who were bidding for tasks were given an automatic notification, along with the option to adjust the price of their offer, if the offered price was below Ageras’ estimated market price. The estimated market price was inter alia based on Ageras’ knowledge…
Broadcaster Sky saw further success before the English Court of Appeal last week. Following an overall win in its infringement case against cloud-IT services provider SkyKick, Sky has appealed to overturn the point it lost in the court below, that the “Sky” trade marks it relied on were partly applied for in bad faith.  Background  This is the latest judgment in a long fight between Sky and IT services provider Skykick, which has already been…
The Australian Cyber Security Centre has labelled ransomware the ‘highest cyber threat’ facing Australian businesses. A 2020 Crowdstrike Report has found that over two-thirds (67%) of Australian organisations have suffered a ransomware attack in the last 12 months. The global rate sits at only 57%. In 33% of those cases, the affected company paid the ransom, costing an average of AU$1.25 million for each breach. Payment of the ransom provides resources to the criminal organisations…
On 9 April 2021, the Federal Court of Australia stayed proceedings brought by Epic Games (Epic) against Apple for various breaches of the CCA on the basis of a clause in the underlying agreement between the parties requiring that all disputes be heard by courts in the Northern District of California (an Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause). Our summary of this decision can be found at link. On 9 July 2021, the Full Federal Court overturned…
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Bird & Bird Partner Dr. Michael Jünemann teamed up with the tech-expert Dr. Udo Milkau to address legal challenges of Blockchain-based contracts. A pdf including notes, citations and sources is available for download below. 1. Introduction The so-called “blockchain technology” (aka distributed ledger technology) is discussed currently as some kind of philosophers stone, to solve nearly all questions which have not been answered by traditional information technology. In addition, blockchain should change the whole world…
In the interview, Jonathan covers a wide range of topics, including litigating in CAS’s Ad Hoc Division, his involvement with the action taken by WADA in relation to Russian doping, “hot tubbing” of experts and how to become a sports lawyer. Jonathan also discusses some of his most significant cases, including the recent landmark Semenya v. IAAF ruling, dealing with fundamental issues concerning the eligibility criteria laid down by athletics’ governing body. You can read…