UK law
Secretaries of State reply to Select Committees’ joint response to copyright and AI consultation
The Secretaries of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and for Culture, Media and Sport have replied to the February 2025 CMS and SIT Committees’ joint response to the government’s consultation on AI and copyright. They have shared the Committees’ joint response with officials at the Intellectual property Office to ask them to consider the Committee’s comments. They also said that there have been over 11,500 responses to the consultation. The government is carefully reviewing responses and has not made any decisions yet. The implementation of any text and data mining exception depends on having workable technical solutions in place for rights reservation. The government will not proceed with legislation unless and until these technical requirements are met.
Ofcom sets out 2025/26 Plan of Work and longer-term blueprint to support economic growth
Ofcom has issued its Plan of Work for 2025/26 which outlines its strategic priorities aimed at enhancing communication services, ensuring online safety, and promoting competition in the media and telecommunications sectors across the UK. The plan focuses on four main priorities: ‘Internet and post we can rely on’, ‘Media we trust and value’, ‘We live a safer life online’, and ‘Enabling wireless in the UK economy’. Key initiatives include supporting investment in gigabit-capable broadband, improving telecoms network security, reforming the universal postal service, implementing the Media Act, enforcing content standards, establishing the Online Safety regime, managing radio spectrum efficiently, and facilitating innovation in mobile and satellite services. Ofcom also says that it will address the unique needs of each home nation, ensuring tailored approaches and stakeholder engagement. The plan emphasizes collaboration with domestic and international partners, investing in data and technology capabilities, and using evidence-based regulation to inform policy decisions.
Adult sites start rolling out age assurance
Ofcom has indicated that providers of online pornography are implementing highly effective age assurance across thousands of sites, in response to Ofcom’s enforcement programme in this area. Earlier this year, Ofcom wrote to hundreds of providers, collectively covering thousands of sites that publish their own pornographic content, telling them about their new obligations under Part 5 of the Online Safety Act to implement highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing this material. So far, it says that it has had positive engagement from across the sector and several providers have implemented highly effective age assurance in response to its enforcement programme. It is currently reviewing compliance plans and implementation timescales for other services in scope of these duties. It is also assessing the age assurance measures of providers who have not responded, and several services have been referred to Ofcom’s enforcement team, who will consider in the coming weeks whether formal enforcement action is appropriate. Details of any new investigations will be published on the Ofcom website. By July 2025, all services that allow pornography, including sites that allow user-generated pornographic content, will need to have highly effective age-checks in place to protect children from accessing it.
Patents Court considers patent validity and infringement and FRAND terms claims validly served out of jurisdiction
In Mediatek Inc and others v Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and another [2025] EWHC 649 (Pat), the Patents Court decided that the court had validly permitted service on a defendant out of the jurisdiction regarding actions concerning validity and infringement of telecommunications patents, and the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms for a global cross-licence. Huawei wanted to license its SEPs at the chipset rather than device level. MediaTek brought proceedings against Huawei in the Patents Court, and among other things wanted determination of a global FRAND licence. Huawei pointed to fact that the relevant acts took place around China as well as the existence of parallel proceedings brought by Huawei and MediaTek in China.
