Legal Question in Intellectual Property in United Kingdom

Dear Sir

There are generally two different circumstances, in law, where one party is entitled to terminate their contract with another.

a) Under a clause in the contract which sets out the circumstances in which the contract can be terminated. This sometimes includes a breach of contract.

b) Under general law where a condition of the contract is breached or there is a serious misrepresentation which induces the other party to enter into the contract and the

misrepresentation is serious. Not all representations entitle a party to terminate the contract; this is dependant on how serious the misrepresentation was.

Accordingly, in order to decide whether the breach is sufficient to entitle you to terminate, it would be necessary to read the contract and have a full description of the

circumstances in which the contract was entered into. This is important to establish if any representations were made which induced you to enter into the contract

which have turned out to be false or fraudulent.

Normally the consequences of a breach of contract depend on the importance of a term that is broken. A minor breach of an important term which amounts to a "condition" would entitle the innocent party to terminate the contract. Breaches of less important terms give rise to a claim for damages but not a right to terminate the contract.

In order to justify termination the guilty party's breach normally needs to amount to effectively a repudiation of the contract itself but often written agreements go further than this and allow termination for repeated breaches or one substantial or material breach.

In order to properly advise it is necessary therefore to read the contract and for you to provide a statement of the discussions and negotiations leading up to the entry into the contract and what has happened since.

There are some other grounds for termination which may be worth considering include undue influence where is an extreme inequality between the parties at the time that the contract was entered into (they are not uncommon in the music business between young artists and management).