Best legal reads of the week: April 27 - May 1

What are the top legal reads of the week from around the web written by Osborne Clarke’s people? Which posts have been shared the most via social media?

Here are OC’s best legal reads of the week… 

• Employee share plans: have you registered and filed your annual returns online with HMRC?

Companies operating employee share plans (whether tax-advantaged or unapproved) must take action to comply with the new HMRC online registration and annual reporting requirements. The deadline is 6 July 2015, but the online processes take a few days to complete – if you have not already done so, action should be taken as soon as possible. Read the full update here. 

• Can you reduce trade mark infringement risks by using your brand as the company name?

The Court of Appeal judgement in Assos v Asos has highlighted that legal entities, such as companies, can rely on the ‘own name defence’ to trade mark infringement. The Court of Appeal found that the online clothing retailer Asos’s use of the mark ASOS would have infringed a community trade mark registration for the cycling clothing brand ASSOS but for their ability to successfully rely on the ‘own name defence’. Read the publication here. 

• Cities look to benefit as car sharing becomes increasingly accessible and popular

No matter how you look at it, both the automotive industry and consumer usage of vehicles are on the cusp of major change. One sub-set of those changes, car sharing, comes in multiple forms, from car clubs such as City Car Club. This development is changing the way city-dwellers use cars, read more here. 

• [News] Woolworths Workers Lose Compensation Fight

Employment law specialist Victoria Parry, a partner at Osborne Clarke, told Sky News the ruling “was a victory for common sense”. Read the release on Sky News here. 

Read the full legal update on the ECJ’s ruling here.