Should Google's use of trademarks as keywords in its AdWords service amount to trademark infringement?

Why has the Google Spain case drawn so much publicity and what are the long-term legal implications of the decision?

The business world is waiting for important news from the Bank of England, which later today is expected to raise interest rates for only the second time in a decade. Investors are betting that the Bank’s monetary policy committee will increase rates from 0.5% to 0.75%, which would reap benefits for savers and affect millions of loans and mortgages.

Google Ventures has backed Lawhive in a £9.5 million funding round, taking a stake in the British legal technology start-up developing an ‘AI paralegal’.

Commercial firm Gordon Dadds has acquired fellow City practice Ince & Co in a deal worth £27 million, although the final agreement will see Ince’s affiliated overseas offices continue to operate under the Ince & Co brand.

Publicly listed firm Gordon Dadds is in merger talks with Ince & Co, which if successful will create a major new international law firm.

The justice secretary Michael Gove has abandoned a controversial new bidding scheme for legal aid contracts and suspended a further 8.75% fee cut for duty criminal solicitors who represent people suspected of crimes in police stations and magistrates courts.

The justice secretary, Michael Gove, has said that rich lawyers and firms should do more to make justice available for all following the removal of access to justice for most of the public by his government’s legal aid cuts.

The UK government has announced a £24 million injection of cash into police station and youth court fees, marking the “start of the government’s work to support the sustainability of the justice system both now and in future”.

Following discussions between CILEx and the Ministry of Justice, it has been announced that chartered legal executives can now become coroners.

The Ministry of Justice has been allocated an extra £30 million, not to address the legal aid crisis, but to prepare for the possibility of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

The government has set out the expected consequences of a no-deal Brexit on the legal profession, as well as the wider economy in a report published on Tuesday.

The Government Legal Department (GLD) has warned that its lawyers face serious capacity challenges as they work on Brexit, which will be additional to the full range of legal services that they already provide in all areas of government.

The Government Legal Department (GLD) has announced in its Business Plan that it wants over 25% of senior employees to be from ethnic minority backgrounds, by 31 March 2022.

According to new research undertaken by the Bar Council, government legal panels are “disproportionately White”. 

What next for seafarers?