Technology & Digital round-up: 22 April 2022

The legal part…

• In a key judgment, the Court of Appeal reversed a controversial High Court decision and held that a loss of profit exclusion in a contract did not exclude a claim for wasted expenditure. See our briefing on the decision and its practical implications.

• The ICO welcomed news of Google’s revised approach to cookie consent. Google will reportedly introduce a “reject all” button on cookie banners step by step in the EU, Switzerland and the UK. The French data regulator previously finedGoogle and Facebook a total of £175 million over cookie consent issues, finding that while the tech giants provided a virtual button to allow the immediate acceptance of cookies, there was no equivalent to refuse them as easily.

• The High Court stayed a consumer claim relating to an online auction bid for an NFT in favour of arbitration in New York. Watch out for our upcoming briefing on the decision, one of the first in the English courts concerning this type of digital asset.

• We referred in the last edition of the round-up to the agreement in principle reached between the US and European Commission on a new transatlantic data privacy framework. It has since been reported that the framework could be adopted by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the European Data Protection Board welcomed the commitments made by the US but said that it will pay special attention to how this political agreement is translated into concrete legal proposals.

• Watch out for our upcoming briefings on smart contracts and the IP implications associated with NFTs. Confused by the terminology? See our videos What is a blockchain? and What is an NFT? and our briefing Understanding blockchain, NFTs & smart contracts.

…and in other news

• Walker Morris is proud to be an Executive sponsor of the Leeds Digital Festival 2022. Join us on 27 April for a free webinar on ‘Blockchain and Sustainability – Friends or Foes?’ as we look to dispel some of the myths surrounding blockchain – exploring what it is, looking at its potential future growth and even gaining an insight into businesses that have gone one step further and integrated the use of this technology into their sustainability-centric businesses. We are very pleased to be joined by a panel of industry experts – Dan Graf from Earthchain, Gary Woodhead from CurveBlock, and Anthony Day, formerly Blockchain Partner at IBM.

• To celebrate World Intellectual Property Day, Walker Morris Senior Associate Matthew Lingard will be speaking at a special Business & IP Centre Leeds event on ‘How the next generation is using AI to power innovation’. Matt’s talk will cover: what AI is and how it currently impacts our lives; how successful businesses are using AI to innovate and what key lessons can be learned; and the benefits and risks associated with using AI for your business. You can register here.

• The buyer of an NFT of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet is struggling to sell it after being offered only about 0.2% of the $2.9 million it was bought for.

• Meanwhile, Twitter’s board took action to protect itself against Elon Musk’s attempts to take over the company.

• The government published guidance and timelines for the launch of the Digital Growth Grant. It says it is committed to making the UK the best place to found and grow a tech business and securing the UK’s status as a global science and technology superpower. A competition will run over the summer with the successful bidder awarded up to £12.09 million.

• A survey conducted for Google Cloud of almost 1,500 executives across 16 countries found that, while ESG initiatives are a top organisational priority, there is a troubling gap between how well companies think they’re doing and how accurately they’re able to measure it. 78% of executives cited technology as critical for their future sustainability efforts – they believe it can help transform operations, share their efforts more broadly and measure and report on the impact of those efforts.

• Apple released new details on the increased use of recycled content across its products – including introducing certified recycled gold for the first time – and announced new disassembly technology as part of its goal to become a “closed-loop” manufacturer.

• The National Cyber Security Centre’s “NCSC for Startups” programme is looking for innovators to help organisations tackle the scourge of ransomware – the most significant cyber threat facing the UK.

• The latest State of the World report from the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) says that the pace of technological change in the global engineering, construction and infrastructure sector is increasing faster than ever before, with the potential for new ‘disruptors’ entering the market driving changes to business models across the sector leading to many new challenges and opportunities for companies.

• In related news, the Chartered Institute of Building and the Buildings Client Group are developing a new partnership to stimulate change and drive digital innovation across the built environment sector.

• And finally, Facebook’s parent company Meta is testing new features to let creators make money within its social virtual reality app Horizon Worlds by selling virtual items and effects in the worlds they create for others to explore.

Get in touch with one of our experts if you have any queries or need advice or assistance.

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