An ongoing trademark battle has concluded in favour of Xintong Tiandi Technology over the use of the name ‘IPHONE’, the globally recognised trade name of Apple Inc.’s mobile technology.

According to the official Legal Daily newspaper, Beijing Municipal High People's Court ruled in favour of the Chinese firm, which sells ‘IPHONE’ branded products in the form of handbags and other leather products. Xintong Tiandi will therefore be able to continue business using the high-status name.

Xintong Tiandi had the name "IPHONE" trademarked in 2010 for leather products in China. Though not approved until 2013, Apple filed a trademark bid for the name for electronic goods in 2002. Apple challenged the Chinese firm’s rights to the name via the Chinese trademark authority in 2012, and upon failing, filed a lawsuit with a lower Beijing court. Again this failed, so Apple appealed to the High People's Court.

Alongside a law being passed in China requiring all digital content within China to be stored on Chinese mainland servers, and therefore Apple’s iBooks and iTunes content being shut out of the China, one its biggest target markets, this news is likely to affect the world’s biggest tech firm in Asia.

According to the BBC, Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor, sold all his Apple shares last week in concern over the company’s future in China.

As of 20th May, the EU’s new regulations stressing the need for 65% of cigarette packs to be covered with appropriate health warnings will come into force. This week, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the new measures are “appropriate and necessary” to reduce smoking.

The Court’s decision also upheld a future EU ban on menthol cigarettes throughout the Union, solely opposed by Poland. Tighter measures on electronic cigarettes were also agreed on, and promotional statements such as "this product is free of additives" or "is less harmful than other brands" have been banned.

The new rules were introduced to the EU Tobacco Products Directive in 2014, but have been delayed by a number of court cases. Overall, the regulations have been appealed against by Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, with Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands acting as related parties, but the Court claims the new regulations protect human health and meet the Union’s responsibilities under UN tobacco agreements.

“The court considers that the prohibition is such as to protect consumers against the risks associated with tobacco use and does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve the objective pursued,” said the ECJ in a statement.

The new measures will be implemented as of 20th May, with a one-year sell-through period for businesses to sell current stock, aiming to cut the number of smokers in the EU by 2.4 million.

National law firm Richard Nelson LLP is continuing to expand and strengthen its national presence with the appointment of three new lawyers. Mark Wilson, Jacqui Callan and Faris Dean (pictured) are the latest members to join the team, bringing more than 60 years’ combined experience with them.

Wilson, who takes up the role of partner, is nationally recognised within tax law,  specialising specifically within heavyweight tax investigations, fraud, company prosecution and privately funded criminal cases. He was one of the founding partners of law firm Cartwright King.

He has represented clients involved in some of the most high profile cases of the past decade, including former Portsmouth FC Chairman Milan Mandaric who was cleared of all charges in his tax case alongside Harry Redknapp.

Callan initially began her career as a probation officer before retraining as a lawyer in 1999. She has been appointed solicitor advocate at Richard Nelson LLP. Her expertise is in multi-handed money laundering, customs and excise, fitness to plead and sexual offence cases.

She later joined one of the biggest criminal defence firms in the country as a director for crime and was one of the first defence High Court advocates on the Leicester circuit.

Dean joins Richard Nelson LLP as consultant solicitor. He has advised sole traders, partnerships and corporations on a range of corporate, commercial and regulatory matters, and is also a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant.

Wilson and Callan are operating from the company’s Nottingham office whilst Dean joins the office over in Cardiff.

Managing partner of Richard Nelson LLP, Marie Dancer, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mark, Jacqui and Faris to our ever expanding team of defence lawyers. Their experience and industry knowledge will be invaluable for our clients and will strengthen the defence team at our Nottingham headquarters.”

The company has seven offices across the UK in London, Nottingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds.

Visit Richard Nelson LLP to find out more information about each lawyer's profile and career.

The European Commission has informed Google of its preliminary view that the company has, in breach of EU antitrust rules, abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators.

The Commission's preliminary view is that Google has implemented a strategy on mobile devices to preserve and strengthen its dominance in general internet search. First, the practices mean that Google Search is pre-installed and set as the default, or exclusive, search service on most Android devices sold in Europe. Second, the practices appear to close off ways for rival search engines to access the market, via competing mobile browsers and operating systems. In addition, they also seem to harm consumers by stifling competition and restricting innovation in the wider mobile space.

The Commission's concerns are outlined in a Statement of Objections addressed to Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "A competitive mobile internet sector is increasingly important for consumers and businesses in Europe. Based on our investigation thus far, we believe that Google's behaviour denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players, in breach of EU antitrust rules. These rules apply to all companies active in Europe. Google now has the opportunity to reply to the Commission's concerns."

Smartphones and tablets account for more than half of global internet traffic, and are expected to account for even more in the future. About 80% of smart mobile devices in Europe and in the world run on Android, the mobile operating system developed by Google. Google licenses its Android mobile operating system to third party manufacturers of mobile devices.

The Commission opened proceedings in April 2015 concerning Google's conduct as regards the Android operating system and applications. At this stage, the Commission considers that Google is dominant in the markets for general internet search services, licensable smart mobile operating systems and app stores for the Android mobile operating system. Google generally holds market shares of more than 90% in each of these markets in the European Economic Area (EEA).

In this recent Statement of Objections, the Commission alleges that Google has breached EU antitrust rules by: requiring manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Google's Chrome browser and requiring them to set Google Search as default search service on their devices, as a condition to license certain Google proprietary apps; preventing manufacturers from selling smart mobile devices running on competing operating systems based on the Android open source code; giving financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-install Google Search on their devices.

Though it is set to continue trading, British Home Stores (BHS), a UK high street based retailer, has filed for administration and began selling the company this week.

Up to 11,000 employees are now at risk of losing their jobs, but BHS has assured that for the time being nobody will be made redundant.

The firm will also have to grapple with a £571 million debt in pensions owed to its employees, 20,000 of which will be expecting future pension payments. That is just part of the firm’s already entrenched £1.3 billion debt.

Law firm Duff & Phelps has taken charge of the administration process, and has stated that BHS has received more than 30 expressions of interest from potential bidders. However, analysts say buyers would be more likely to acquire parts of the company in smaller assets.

Philip Duffy and Benjamin Wiles, Managing Directors at Duff & Phelps have been appointed Joint Administrators of the BHS Group.

British Home Stores was already bought out for just £1 over a year ago by Retail Acquisitions Group, leaving the hands of UK entrepreneur Sir Philip Green.

If the high street chain fails to find a buyer, its demise could be the largest seen in the UK since the collapse of Woolworth’s in 2008.

Following an ongoing case since 2015, taxi competition firm Uber has agreed to settle for as much as $100 million. According to Uber’s website, around 450,000 drivers use the Uber app in the US every month.

The case began last year with a focus on individuals claiming to be employees of Uber rather than contractors. Uber drivers wanted to be deemed status of employee in order to gain certain further rights. Almost a year later, Uber is relieved to settle but critics are disappointed that the case has not reached trial.

US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco must now approve the settlement for it to go ahead.

The head of Uber, Travis Kalanick said in a blog post that he is pleased with the settlement as his company’s drivers will continue to operate as independent contractors.

"Drivers value their independence - the freedom to push a button rather than punch a clock, to use Uber and Lyft simultaneously, to drive most of the week or for just a few hours," he commented. He did however point out that Uber has not always “done a good job working with drivers. It's time to change."

Uber has now restructured its policies to allow more transparency when informing drivers of contract termination, the issue that had spurred the first case last year. Of the proposed settlement cash, $84 million will go to the Uber drivers involved, while a further $16 million will also be brought forward if the company goes public and increases its worth one and a half times from its 2015 December worth within the first year.

According to the BBC, lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan, involved in the case, said there may be disappointment spread over the case as it did not reach court, but says there may have been a “significant risk of losing" if the case had moved forward.

Ms Liss-Riordan did clarify also that the settlement does not prevent court, or US labour bodies, classing Uber drivers as employees.

The European Union has set in motion plans to have the largest companies operating in its jurisdiction declare more information about their earnings and tax expenditure.

Multinational companies earning over £600m in Europe will be affected by the new regulations, with requirements on full tax disclosure per EU member country.

So far, such a degree of tax disclosure only applies to banks, mining and forestry organizations, but with the new rules in place, around 90% of corporate revenue in the EU will be looked over. This includes large corporations such as Google and Amazon.

According to the BBC, these companies will have to state information such as total net turnover, profit before tax, income tax due, tax actually paid and accumulated earnings. New amendments however, will also need firms to declare activity in tax havens offshore.

The original plans were introduced by the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) in January, but have now evolved  in light of the recent Panama leak scandal (Click here to know the ins and outs), that has provoked global uproar towards tax avoidance.

“This is a carefully thought through but ambitious proposal for more transparency on tax,” stated Lord Hill, Britain’s EU Commissioner and the EU’s Financial services Commissioner, who will be presenting the plans next Tuesday.

"While our proposal on (country-by-country reporting) is not of course focused principally on the response to the Panama Papers, there is an important connection between our continuing work on tax transparency and tax havens that we are building into the proposal,” Lord Hill clarified with the BBC.

In 2015 the oil industry was hit with an extended period of fluctuation in which crude oil Brent gapped steadily down to below $30 a barrel by the end of the year. By the start of 2016, some companies, namely large anonymous traders, had already benefited significantly behind the scenes.

A small number of executives stood above the rest, standing out in the closely bound energy industry throughout 2015. According to Bloomberg, Damian Stewart, Managing Director at Human Capital, a commodities trader, says “the oil trading industry as a whole enjoyed the best year since 2008-09.”

Oil trade became the golden goose in 2015, with profits rising steadily for companies like Glencore and BP. One named example is Vitol Group BV, which netted $1.6 billion in 2015 due to the extended efforts of its oil trading bodies; the fourth biggest annual profit figure Vitol has seen in its 50 year history.

In addition, companies that were wise enough to stack their incomes when the opportunity arose, most likely also stacked up their oil appropriation, as when prices start to lose volatility and rise to steady rates, these firms will have a back storage of oil bought during a far cheaper period, the 2015 oil contango.

As an example, Vitol made good use of the ‘Overseas Laura Lynn’, a 380m tanker vessel with a hold capacity of 3 million barrels of oil ready for storage. Vitol now keeps this stored up offshore in Dubai. Similarly, Glencore stored its oil assets on land in the Caribbean ready for a more profitable date.

BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA, three of the world’s biggest non-independent oil trading firms, also benefitted significantly from the 2015 entrenched contango. However, independent oil trading companies, such as Singapore based Trafigura, saw the even brighter side of 2015’s oil slump. Trafigura’s gross profit augmented 50% to $1.7 billion last year.

Bloomberg reports that Kurt Chapman , head of oil trading at Mercuria Energy Group Ltd, positioned colleagues around the world, profited from the oil price volatility, took advantage of storage opportunities, and had his best year since 2009. Likewise, Gunvor Group and Noble Group, both large independent commodities traders, experienced their most profitable years, despite issues in the mining and metal-trading fields.

In light of the recent ‘Panama leak’ (Click here to know the ins and outs), governments globally have not only set out to close in on illegal tax evasion, but have also started to scrutinize tax avoidance and minimization.

According to Bloomberg, public tumult is on its way to pushing for the enhancement of enforcement measures against tax avoidance, but political establishments will remain eroded in terms of credibility and effectiveness.

The legal separation between tax evasion and tax avoidance is now in dispute by the public, which sees either strategy as ‘tax dodging’ and deems it unfair given the obvious wealth inequality in its midst.

With the public release of 11 million plus pages of data, documents, emails and other information from Mossack Fonseca, the Panama based law firm at the heart of the scandal, people are now also aware of public figures, state governors, the wealthy and the powerful usurping the benefits of the Panama law firm’s services; namely the establishment and management of offshore entities to protect capital and reduce tax costs.

Bloomberg explains that on the back of this release of information, repercussions were immediate, including the recent resignation of Iceland’s Prime Minister and the release of personal tax returns by UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Authorities in Germany have also clamped down on legal tax avoidance, where the outcome, when benefitting the richest most of all, is morally dubious. Focused observation by said authorities ranges from tighter reporting requirements, to improved global data sharing and enhanced cross-border checks.

These alterations, which may be picked up by governing bodies internationally, will have very apparent impact on business made by those involved in tax evasion. Bloomberg states that “the measures' effects on politics and governance, while they will be less visible, could be more consequential for broader segments of society.”

With the impact of the Panama papers pending, how the public sees its governing authority could change, as it has so far revolved around the notion that governments turn a blind eye to tax dodging. The Panama papers themselves however, despite having set in motion change, will now further nurture the idea that the privileged, powerful or rich have a free pass to live according to different rules.

Known now as the biggest journalistic investigation to date, the Panama scandal will surely push for better and more accurate measures on tax minimization in the long term, but for now, Bloomberg states that “in the short-term, this will be accompanied by even stronger resistance to the kind of political unity that is needed in several countries to deliver high growth and genuine financial stability.”

Last week, Berrymans Lace Mawer (BLM), one of the UK’s top insurance litigation and risk law specialists, had its Southampton office halved with the resignation of eight partners.

Although all the partners that are set to leave have not been reported yet, Southampton and Bristol head Michael Renshaw is one of the eight.

BLM has publicly confirmed that it “received a number of resignations,” but assures it has “strong relationships with customers currently supported by lawyers in Southampton and have been assured of their continuing support for BLM.”

In February, BLM announced a re-structure of its fraud team from Manchester to Birmingham. This followed the re-election of Mike Brown as senior partner at the start of 2015.

The firm has 13 offices throughout the UK, and its three core locations are London, Manchester and Birmingham. Following its 2014 merger with Scotland based firm HBM Sayers, from 2014 to 2015 BLM saw a 17% rise in revenue to £104.1m.