Your commercial news round-up: AI music, Jo Malone, Rolls-Royce, pay growth

Ellie Nicholl is a senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: three minutes

The UK government has backtracked on its approach to AI and copyright after backlash from the creative sector, while Estée Lauder has launched legal action against perfumer Jo Malone over the commercial use of her name. Elsewhere, Rolls‑Royce has stepped away from its pledge to go fully electric by the end of the decade and fresh data shows UK pay growth has slowed to its weakest pace in more than five years. Read on to find out more!

• The UK government has changed its position on AI and copyright following backlash from major artists, such as Dua Lipa and Sir Elton John. Previously, it supported an approach that allowed companies to use copyrighted works to train their models, with artists able to opt out. However, Technology Secretary Liv Kendall said the government has listened to complaints and “engaged extensively” with people in the creative and AI industries. In a report published on Wednesday 18 March, the government said it’s seeking to balance the interests of the technology and creative sectors but noted there’s “no consensus on how these objectives should be achieved”. In a separate impact assessment, it acknowledged that UK culture is a "world-leading national asset" but stated that the AI industry is growing "23 times faster than the rest of the economy".
  
  CEO of the trade body for the UK music industry BPI welcomed the backtrack and said: "There's real opportunity here if the licensing market is allowed to thrive, and if creativity and AI can go hand in hand when it comes to innovation and growth – not at the expense of our creativity”. Meanwhile, the Musicians’ Union stressed that collective licensing schemes must protect individual artists, “not just major rights holders”.
   
• Cosmetics firm Estée Lauder is taking legal action against perfumer Jo Malone after she used her name on a fragrance for fashion brand Zara, despite having sold her perfume brand to Estée Lauder in 1999 under a deal that restricted her from using her name commercially. Since stepping away from the Jo Malone brand in 2006, Malone has stated that selling her name was “the biggest mistake of my life”. In 2011, once a non-compete clause ended, Malone set up the Jo Loves brand, which launched a collaboration with Zara in 2019. A recent product features wording “a creation by Jo Malone CBE, founder of Jo Loves”, which an Estée Lauder spokesperson said surpassed “the legal agreement and undermines Jo Malone London’s unique brand equity”.
   
• Rolls-Royce has stepped away from its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. It previously made this promise alongside the launch of its all-electric Spectre model in 2022. Former CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös predicted that Spectre would make up 20% of sales, with a goal to reach 70% by 2028. Current CEO Chris Brownridge, who stepped into the role in 2023, explained: “The legislation has changed […] that prediction was based on a different set of circumstances.” Brownridge added that the pledge made under his predecessor was “right at the time” but noted: “We recognise some clients would rather have a V12 engine. The V12 is part of our history.”
   
• UK pay growth has slowed to its weakest pace in more than five years, with regular earnings rising 3.8% in the three months to January, down from 4.2%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While wage growth continues to outpace inflation, which stands at 3%, expectations of an imminent interest rate cut have faded, as rising fuel and energy prices – influenced by developments in the Middle East – raise concerns about inflation. ONS data also showed public sector pay rising faster than the private sector, while job vacancies remained broadly stable and the number of payrolled employees edged higher.

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