Case study: Bright Grey

Intellectual property and e-commerce in financial services advice

The Pinsent Masons team advised Bright Grey, a subsidiary of the Royal London Group, on trade mark and brand issues, data protection, distance selling of financial services, outsourcing and e-commerce regulatory compliance.

Bright Grey was launched in March 2003 to sell life insurance and other protection services – without the "jargon and gobbledegook" usually associated with financial services.

An extranet that makes on-line application forms available to IFAs was developed and Pinsent Masons helped Bright Grey get around the issue of consent, which was a major stumbling block, by writing a solution into the formal contracts Bright Grey enters into with IFAs.

"It makes good sense," said David Robinson, Chief Executive of Bright Grey, of the system that puts all the documentation on a secure internet site, but that still requires the IFA to get a traditional signature from his client on hard copy conditions. "The IFA will hold the paperwork – not us – and the IFA will indicate on-line that the paperwork has been signed."

Pinsent Masons' outsourcing and technology lawyers also advised Bright Grey on its IT procurement, negotiating over 30 contracts simultaneously.

Alastair Lonie, Head of Finance at Bright Grey said:

"As a greenfield business, Bright Grey has benefited from the broad skills and capability available within the team as Pinsent Masons. The initiative and advice that they brought to our business has meant that Bright Grey's commercial position is considerably stronger than it would otherwise have been. The commitment shown to our business and the relationships built have established the Pinsent Masons team as a valuable extension to our own in house team."

See: Bright Grey