This week’s top 15 legal briefings - 15 November 2015 - The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs

The fact that the lyrics to the popular song Happy Birthday have been copyrighted has become something of a joke to many people. It’s also one of those facts that might bore the rest of the party as the birthday boy or girl is cutting their cake. But the copyright has been lucrative for its owners Warner Music.

However, Shoosmiths writes that the lyrics to the song have now entered the public domain, meaning Warner could lose up to $2m per year. The rights have recently been scrapped by the US District Court, which decided that no record of an agreement to transfer the rights to Warner was ever filed. Click here for more information.

Gateley asks whether £85 is too much to pay for three hours’ parking. According to the Supreme Court it is not. The decision was reached after one Mr Beavis challenged a parking ticket and was fined £85. However, Beavis claimed the charge was illegal as it did not cover losses suffered by the company. The court disagreed, stating that the company had a valid business reason for implementing the charge. Click here for more information.

NCTM examines the recent job cuts across the UK steel industry and suggests that Chinese way of doing business could soon damage other industries. The briefing puts forward the view that China is not acting as a market economy, meaning prices are not determined correctly. Unless the Chinese economy changes other markets could soon be flooded with cheap goods. Click here for more information.

Top five briefings by law firm
Shepherd and Wedderburn: Will litigation steal a march on international arbitration? Download
Shoosmiths: Contracts: who is responsible for non-compete provisions? Download
NCTM: Steel is just the start: the Chinese way is too successful Download
Gateley: Tribunal fees revisited (yet again…) Download
Bates Wells Braithwaite: Employment update Autumn ’15: holidays never end; and more Download
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