Filing for bankruptcy might seem like an unlikely possibility for your company, and it probably is. But it happens. In the past, bankrupt brand owners had no clear answer as to whether, under bankruptcy law, they could both reject and rescind outgoing trademark licenses with the Bankruptcy Court’s approval. Now, the United States Supreme Court has provided an answer: They cannot ...
The Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2018 (FTRA), which was enacted on May 25, 2018, imposed a mandatory requirement on land developers to register with the Compliance Commission (the Commission) ...
According to statistics released by the European Commission earlier in 2019, the term “GDPR” amassed more Google searches than either Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian during the month of May 2018. Now that “GDPR” has become a household term, what have we learntin the 12 months since the introduction of the GDPR? 1 ...
Trademark law in Canada is undergoing a major change this year that will go into effect on June 17, 2019. We have compiled the three things you need to know and important steps you may want to take before the June 17, 2019 date passes. 1 ...
On 8 April 2019, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority and Prudential Authority (collectively, the “Authorities”) published yet another draft of the Joint Standard on Margin Requirements for Non-Centrally Cleared OTC Derivatives (the “Margin Requirements”). The last draft had been published in August 2018. Implementation of the Margin Requirements has been delayed numerous times ...
Effective from 12 April 2019, Rwanda has new regulations (the “Regulation on Banks' Major Investments and Placements” and the “Regulation on Banks' Shareholding and M&A”) governing major investments and placements by banks as well as the shareholding and M&A of banks. The new regulations repeal their predecessors, which have been in force for eight years ...
At the end of March, UK Visas and Immigration closed both the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) routes, replacing them with two new visa categories, the ‘Start-up’ and the ‘Innovator’, which are contained within a new Appendix W of the Immigration Rules ...
In an increasingly global world, an organisation’s ability to recruit and retain international talent plays an ever important and potentially business critical role. In the UK, the only way in which employers can directly employ many of these talented individuals is through obtaining a sponsor licence from the Home Office ...
On 11 March 2019, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) issued a joint press release announcing the enactment of legislation enabling the implementation of a “passporting” scheme to facilitate UAE-wide promotion of domestic funds ...
The Brexit referendum vote and its potential impact on free movement has already resulted in many businesses struggling to meet their labour needs; the number of EU migrants has declined markedly at a time when Scotland and the UK is enjoying record levels of employment. As a consequence, immigration has risen to the top of many organisations’ agendas to ensure they can recruit and retain the talent they need to grow their businesses and remain competitive ...
The incorporation of the Law on Security Interests in El Salvador has the objective to create a registry for security interests, that is to say, the inscription of the security interests’ creation, modification, extension, termination and execution, as well as the publicity of these instruments. The Commercial Value that some brands have, plays a very important role and represents, for some entrepreneurs, a mechanism which enables them to access credits ...
The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Chief Executive, Andrea Coscelli raised concerns in April at “seeing a lot of evidence of anti-competitive conduct in the construction industry”, adding the CMA had “already taken a number of cases in this sector…”. Recent enforcement action from the CMA, outlined below, suggests regulatory intervention is only likely to increase ...
(Article is a transcription of a presentation given by L. Ryan Pinder, Parnter, Graham Thompson Attorneys)IntroductionGood morning and welcome to The Bahamas. I trust you will enjoy your stay in our beautiful country. Today I have been asked to speak on the resilience of Caribbean IFC’s, their ability to adapt and survive amidst the many global initiatives over the past two decades and to explore the multitude of ways in which Caribbean IFCs remain relevant and competitive in this era ...
‘Fake news’ - information or news that is proven to be either verifiably false or misleading - has become a major, global concern. As news and opinion pieces are increasingly pushed to readers via online and social media channels, the speed of their dissemination has accelerated exponentially, as have the challenges around regulating news and opinion ...
Whatever your views on Brexit, the deferment of the UK’s leaving date from the EU provided British industry some welcome breathing space to prepare for Brexit. Given the issues that still divide the two main political parties, the UK may yet leave the EU without a deal on 31 October ...
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of incredulity. Blazing yellow sun. Lapping blue waves. Tanned beach bods and a palm tree’s silhouette swaying against an orange sky. Once ubiquitous, the California Fitness logo that hints at its fabulous lifestyle offering has vanished from Singapore. In its heyday “Cali”, as its legions of fans called it, was not merely a gym, it was a status symbol ...
The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the financial free zone which began operations in 2015, has now come of age. On 14 April 2019 Mr Alexander Guy, Senior Executive Officer and Director at Eshara Capital Limited, had the uncommon honour of becoming the first named person to be fined by ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Eshara Capital, in its corporate capacity, was also fined in connection with the same contraventions ...
British Virgin Islands (BVI) companies are commonly used in the UAE by investors to hold real estate properties and/or shares in UAE companies. Investors need to be aware of a recently enacted BVI law, the Economic Substance (Companies and Limited Partnerships) Act, 2018 (the Law), which introduces economic substance requirements in the BVI ...
The Bahamas has passed legislation requiring that certain legal entities carrying on relevant activities have to demonstrate adequate economic substance in said jurisdiction. The beneficial owners of any company or limited partnership incorporated, registered or continued in The Bahamas should be aware of this legislation and consider how they may be affected. The Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Act, 2018 (“CESRA”) came into force on December 31st, 2018 ...
In the year 2000, the United Nations General Assembly designated April 26 as World Intellectual Property Day. The purpose of this is to highlight the role thatintellectual propertyrights play in encouraging innovation and creativity. Across the globe, and at the initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), there is a campaign every year to attract public interest to issues related to Intellectual Property ...
The European Union continues to push out new rules aimed at offshore financial centers. Specifically, the Code of Conduct Group (CCG) within the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council has determined that jurisdictions that fail to satisfy the CCG’s requirement to end “preferential treatment” for non-resident companies are to be deemed ‘non-cooperative’ and effectively blacklisted ...
Recent events, including the investigations into Facebook’s handling of its users’ personal data, have highlighted the realization that personal data is, in today’s world, one of the most valuable resources for any business and that businesses not only collect and store their customers’ personal data but also use and even sell it for profit ...
The administrative fines that have been imposed by the different European supervisory authorities since the GDPR took effect vary enormously. While the highest administrative fines imposed by the German authorities to date have been EUR 20,000 and EUR 80,000 and have therefore remained well below the possible maximum fine of EUR 20 million or 4 % of worldwide annual turnover, other countries’ supervisory authorities have already delivered higher fines ...
This is to inform you that, on March 18 2019, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on “Introduction of amendments to the first, second part and Article 1124 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (the “Law”) was adopted ...
This is to inform you that, on March 18 2019, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on “Introduction of amendments to the first, second part and Article 1124 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (the “Law”) was adopted ...