Welcome to the latest edition of Brand Matters, a series of articles and updates from Mishcon de Reya for brand owners and creators.
Brexit continues to dominate newspaper headlines. We will update you once there is more definition around Britain's future relationship with the EU, but in the meantime here is a link to the article in our last issue on the consequences of 'no deal'.
In good news for brand owners, this month we consider Amazon's new 'Project Zero' initiative, through which it promises to deliver on active counterfeit monitoring and empowerment to brand owners. We also take a look at deploying criminal laws to tackle copycat designs.
New EU legislation that will impact on brand owners includes the controversial Copyright Directive, as well as Directives on Digital Content and the Sale of Goods, all of which were approved this week by the EU Council. Once published in the EU Official Journal, Member States will have two years to implement the provisions in the Directives into national laws. In addition, we analyse the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report on sustainability in the fashion industry, and provide a snapshot of undertakings made by 16 social media celebrities following the CMA's investigation into social media influencing.
Earlier this month, we were delighted to be named Global Luxury Law Firm of the Year at the Luxury Law Awards 2019 in recognition of the launch of our brand management business, MDR Brand Management. We are grateful to our clients, contacts and friends for your support.
If you would like to discuss any of the matters raised in this newsletter or have ideas for future issues, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We would love to hear from you.