Domain names and trade marks are inextricably linked. The reason for this is simple – when a company needs to decide on a name at which it wants people to find it on the Internet, it generally opts for one of its own trade marks. As a result, the issues that crop up in trade mark disputes often crop up in domain name disputes too ...
The KZN High Court handed down a really interesting judgment in May 2013 in the case of Distell v KZN Wines & Spirits. The decision’s interesting because it not only looks at the issues that need to be considered in a trade mark infringement claim, but it also highlights the differences between trade mark infringement and passing off ...
On Friday June 14, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its eagerly-awaited decision, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper, Ltd., 2013 SCC 34, a case concerning random alcohol testing at a paper mill operation in Saint John, New Brunswick ...
The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that a contract that required arbitration of "any dispute" constituted an agreement to class-wide arbitration. The Court’s narrow ruling turns on the parties’ express agreement to allow the arbitrator to decide whether their contract, which contained an arbitration provision but did not mention class proceedings, authorized class arbitration ...
As discussed in our previous Alert, the French government has imposed Sunshine-like obligations on the pharmaceutical industry. Article 2 of Law No 2011-2012 of 29 December 2011 on the Strengthening of Health Protection for Medicinal and Health Products ("loi relative au renforcement de la sécurité sanitaire du médicament et des produits de santé" or "Loi Bertrand") inserted Articles L. 1453-1 in the French Code of Public Health ("Code de la santé publique" or "CSP"). Article L ...
On May 28, 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a draft guidance entitled "Contract Manufacturing Arrangements for Drugs: Quality Agreements."1 The draft guidance describes FDA’s views on defining, establishing and documenting the responsibilities of parties that are involved in the contract manufacturing of drugs that are subject to current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements ...
Although we observed a increasingly widespread use of computer-based solutions in the cloud ( cloud computing ) in the information systems of companies and administrations, sometimes the obvious advantages it brings to the customer do not pay the necessary attention to the assessment of corporate risks that can generate its adoption ...
As Panama became part of a number of industrial property related treaties, our internal laws have become more territorial; the use of a trademark is territorial again and registration becomes imperative for protection. Use as a Basis for Protection In Panama, as happens in most of the countries around the world, the right to register a trademark is acquired by its first use in commerce ...
After the Netherlands, Slovakia, and the UK, it is now France’s turn to impose Sunshine-like obligations on the pharmaceutical industry. Soon, similar obligations will apply to all EU countries, after EFPIA, the European trade association for the pharmaceutical industry, adopts a code of conduct on disclosure of transfers of value between pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals or institutions ...
The Supreme Court’s recent decision has seeded another patent protection feather in Monsanto’s increasingly large cap, in addition to providing guidance on application of the patent exhaustion doctrine in the case of self-replicating technology. In Bowman v ...
The Federal Circuit released the results of its en banc hearing of a case involving the issue of what is patent eligible subject matter under section 101 of the Patent Act. (CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd., F. 3d., Case No. 2011 1301 (May 9, 2013) ...
In 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) set the business community atwitter when an administrative law judge in American Red Cross decided that an at-will disclaimer in an employee handbook violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by being overly broad ...
America’s high school and college students will soon be finishing another school year, and employers across the country are gearing up to welcome many of these young adults as interns for the summer. Interns are staples in many organizations and often provide valuable benefit to a business. As employers strive to keep costs down, including that of labor, many use unpaid summer help where possible ...
On February 25, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its final rule (the Final Rule) setting forth standards for health insurance issuers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act). Specifically, the Final Rule outlines exchange and issuer standards related to coverage of essential health benefits, minimum value and actuarial value ...
Last month, the United States Supreme Court (Supreme Court) provided an unexpected gift to entities facing collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by holding that defendants may moot such a case by making an offer of judgment pursuant to Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This ruling could have application to the more common vehicle for multiple plaintiff claims, class actions under Rule 23, but that has yet to be tested ...
Because of recently-enacted changes to the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act, West Virginia employers will have more time to pay final wages to discharged employees. Prior to this change, the Wage Payment and Collection Act required that employers pay discharged employees within 72 hours of termination ...
Last week, a federal jury in South Carolina found that Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. violated the Stark Law and the False Claims Act by submitting false claims for reimbursement to the United States, resulting in $39 million in damages to the government. United States ex rel. Drakeford v. Tuomey Healthcare Sys., Inc., No. 3:05-2858-MBS (D.S.C. May 8, 2013) ...
A survey by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that 47% of all UK adults now use their personal smart phone, laptop or tablet computer for work purposes - known as 'bring your own device' (BYOD).However, fewer than three in 10 users had received guidance on how to use their devices for work. This raises concerns that users may not understand how to protect the personal information accessed and stored on these devices ...
1. OverviewIn accordance with theWorld Football Association’s, FIFA’s requirements, (consistent) time periodsfor the transfer of players have been established within the Union of EuropeanFootball Associations (UEFA). These time periods exist to ensure that the transferwindows of individual Football Associations coincide with each other and inturn to guarantee equal opportunities for each individual club ...
On April 24, 2013, WorkSafeBC announced the approval of new Occupational Health and Safety Workplace Bullying and Harassment Policies, which come into effect on November 1, 2013 ...
The first industrial revolution, which began in the 1750s, lasted for between 80 to 100 years. The pace of technological change today encourages us to believe that the second industrial revolution (IR2) will be completed at much greater speed. So if we take the mid-1980s as a starting point, with the emergence of optical disk technologies into consumer markets, you would expect us to be well on the way to completion, 30 years into IR2 ...
The hacker group Anonymous announced that it, in concert with Middle East- and North Africa-based criminal hackers and cyber actors, will conduct a coordinated online attack labeled “OpUSA” against banking and government websites today, May 7. Anonymous stated that OpUSA will be a distributed denial of service (DDoS) in which websites may be defaced and legitimate users may be unable to access websites ...
