Alexander Carter-Silk, European head of IP at Brown Rudnick, hit the headlines after sending a message on professional networking site LinkedIn to human rights barrister Charlotte Proudman, commenting on her picture.

We have all seen how the media has pounced on the story this week about the barrister, the lawyer and LinkedIn. But leaving aside the ‘he said, she said’ and looking past how this story got into the public domain in the first place, as this plays out in the press the resulting debate is throwing up important issues.