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Round-up of new rules for October - 04/09/2008
- Company Names Adjudicator Rules 2008: any person can bring proceedings before a company names adjudicator to consider an objection to a limited company's registered name because either it is the same as one in which the applicant has goodwill, or it is so like such a name as to be likely to mislead by suggesting a connection between the company and the applicant;
- directors' conflict of interest duties: as previously reported, a director of a company must avoid a situation in which he has, or could have, a direct or indirect interest that conflicts with the interests of the company, that have not been authorised; directors must not accept benefits from third parties that are offered to them because they are directors; and directors must declare to the other directors the nature and extent of any personal interest they have in any transaction or arrangement that their company proposes to enter into;
- shareholder details in annual return: for annual returns made up to 1 October 2008 or later, private companies (and most public companies) are required to provide only the names of shareholders and not their addresses; in order to take advantage of these reduced disclosure requirements, a company can submit a return made up to any date on or after 1 October 2008, provided it is no later than the anniversary of the previous return;
- under-age directors and natural persons: newly incorporated companies must have at least one director who is a natural person; an existing company which does not have a director who is a natural person must appoint such a director before 1 October 2008, although there is a 2-year grace period for any company which did not have a director who was a natural person on 8 November 2006; also, a statutory minimum age limit of 16 years is introduced for directors, with the effect that under-age directors will automatically cease to be directors from 1 October 2008, and companies must amend their register of directors accordingly;
- Trade Marks Rules 2008: main changes made by these replacement rules include: period for filing opposition to an application to register a trade mark reduced from three months to two months, with a right to extend the period to three months; period for filing a counter-statement in actions for opposition to registration of a trade mark reduced from three months to two months, and 'cooling-off' period reduced to an initial period of nine months; and provision for the registrar to set aside cancellation of an application for registration or the revocation or invalidation of a trade mark registration if the applicant demonstrates that the failure to challenge the proceedings was due to a failure to receive notice of the proceedings;
- changes to maternity leave benefits: as previously reported, employees due to give birth on or after 5 October will be entitled to extra non-cash contractual benefits; however, the position in relation to pension contributions remains unclear, despite guidelines published by HMRC;
- sick pay for short-term agency workers (draft): proposed amendments to the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations, with effect from 27 October, will entitle all agency workers to statutory sick pay (SSP) in the same way as other groups of employees, provided they meet all other criteria for SSP.
