Following resolutions in Parliament, Orders were in March made by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to create unitary authorities for Exeter and Norwich. Devon and Norfolk County Councils challenged the Secretary of State's decisions to lay the Orders before Parliament.

Many of the proposals to reform the junior Intellectual Property Court of England and Wales put forward by the Intellectual Property Court Users Committee last year will come into effect on 1 October 2010. This briefing from Wragge & Co provides an explanation of the changes and their importance.

This is the second edition of the Wragge & Co public law and regulation team's Coalition Watch alert series, which highlights and comments on developments relating to the new government.

Wragge & Co reports that he Court of Appeal has upheld the judgment of Arnold J in January that Intercontinental Brands passed off its VODKAT product as vodka and thereby caused damage to the manufacturer of SMIRNOFF vodka, confirming the apparently broad scope of "extended passing off".

Wragge & Co examines the case of Bulbinder Singh Sandhu v Jet Star Retail Limited, which highlights that care needs to be taken to ensure retention of title clauses are effective.

This briefing from Wragge & Co covers the latest and issues affecting the lending industry, including: tracing claims, ratification of actions, pre-action disclosure application and economic interest in bankruptcy application required.

This briefing by Wragge & Co reports that government plans to use the consumer prices index instead of the retail prices index for the price indexation of public sector pensions have created uncertainty for public-to-private outsourcing exercises.

Disputes between parties to a written agreement almost always involve disagreements about the meaning and effect of particular contractual terms, but unless certain exceptions apply the court will not consider evidence of pre-contractual negotiations when interpreting a particular term.

Wragge & Co have launched this fortnightly alert series to summarise major Coalition Government developments from the previous two weeks and comment on the key changes.

Following considerable opposition from government to its proposals to reform compensation claims against public authorities, the Law Commission has admitted defeat and abandoned its plans.