In a commentary piece published in Australia’s leading online media law publication, partner and head of our media practice Peter Bartlett argues that Australia already has laws to protect serious invasions of privacy and warns against the effect on reporting that a statutory right to privacy would have. He writes: The reality is that Australia has many laws that already protect an individual’s right to privacy ...
On 1 January 2015, an amendment to the VAT Act is to become valid. Its main objective is to implement EU regulations. The main change concerns the place of performance in the case of telecommunication services, TV and radio broadcasting services and services electronically provided to persons who are not obliged to pay the tax. All these services will be taxed in the country of the recipient of the relevant service ...
The movement of information across national borders drives today’s global economy. Cross-border data transfers allow businesses and consumers access to the best available technology and services, wherever those resources may be located around the world. The free-flow of data across borders benefits all industry sectors, from manufacturing to financial services, education, health care and beyond ...
With food and nutrition key issues for growing markets such as China, investment in Agribusiness is about supporting Asian partner objectives to grow "safe food" and "harvest protein", according to Adam Handley, President of the Australia China Business Council (WA) and a senior partner at law firm Minter Ellison ...
After 80 years using a very old Dutch trade law (Bedfrijfsreglementerings Ordonnantie 1934, Staatsblad 1938 Number 86), Indonesia has finally introduced its own Bill on Trade. The Bill on Trade was passed by the House of Representatives on 11 February 2014 and will come into effect on 13 March 2014 at the latest ...
On March 6, the Plenary Session of the Federal Telecommunications Institute published in the Federal Official Gazette the call of public tender no. IFT-1 that is intended for the development and commercial use of transmission channels for the provision of public service broadcast digital television ("Tender"). This would be, to form two national chains in Mexico for a period of twenty years ...
SerbiaIncreased number of applications for industrial property protection It seems that the promotional efforts of the Intellectual Property Office of Serbia have been effective. According to statistics from the IP Office for 2013, the number of trademark applications increased by 40%, the number of patent applications increased by 5% and industrial design applications increased by 42% compared to last year ...
On 14 February 2014 the South African Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) gave notice of its intention to prohibit the use of a large number of European food and drinks names in terms of section 15 of the Merchandise Marks Act (MMA) - confusingly the notice also makes reference to section 13 of the MMA, a section that no longer exists ...
On February 28, 2014, the Colombian Government issued Decree 456 of 2014, whereby it established special tariffs applicable to the imports of clothing and shoes. The measure is a compound ad valorem (10%) and specific tariff (US$5) for imports of products classified under chapters 61, 62 and 62 of the Colombian Tariff Code, with prices under US$10 per kilogram, and to imports of products classified under chapter 64, with prices under US$7 per pair ...
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, leaders from the telecoms sector gathered to discuss pressing issues, conduct business - and launch their latest products. A consistent message heard from those in Barcelona is that there is a rapidly approaching 'data capacity crunch' and that major investment in telecoms infrastructure is needed. The Teleport chief executive has estimated that, globally, mobile network operators will need to invest $1 ...
The Central Bank of Brazil initiated a public hearing on 6 February to facilitate foreign investment. The Internet-delivered hearing will end on 7 April. The idea is to include under a single normative act the scattered provisions relating to fixed and variable income investment, as well as to portfolio investment. The measure is one of initiatives taken by the Central Bank within its Otimiza-BC program of cost reduction ...
In a decision that will please rights holders, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) ruled last week that goods sold by a website based outside the EU are protected by EU intellectual property law if they are sold to a person in the EU. Mr Blomqvist lived in Denmark. He ordered a watch described as a Rolex from a Chinese website which was then sent to him from Hong Kong. The Danish customs authorities held the parcel on suspicion that it was a counterfeit ...
Strategic Investment Act: The new Act on Strategic Investment in Croatia has achieved its goal of reducing administrative procedures and ensuring the speedy realisation of strategic projects in Croatia. In order to declare a project “strategic,” it must meet several criteria. Foremost, the project must be in accordance with spatial planning regulations. Also, the total amount of capital expense must be HRK 150 million (approx. EUR 19.6 million) or more ...
Negotiation of the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation has faltered. While there is still a possibility that the Regulation could be passed before the May 2014 European elections, that looks increasingly remote. The main stumbling block appears to be the difficult issue of the ‘one stop shop’, which has produced deadlock within the Council of Ministers. The ‘one stop shop’ proposal is inherently difficult, but until now has been referenced in somewhat superficial terms ...
The Romanian Government has approved the necessary legislative amendments to create a holding regime in Romania, the ordinance being published in the Official Gazette on Friday, November 15, effective as of January 1st, 2014. The ordinance includes profits tax exemptions for Romanian holding companies as regards revenues from dividends received, revenues from the sale of shares and revenues from the liquidation process ...
Rapid innovation and convergence in the TMT space in Australia, together with an ever-changing legal and regulatory environment, means that TMT organisations must constantly re-evaluate, and in some cases entirely re-engineer, their business models and strategies. This chapter, contributed by partners Anthony Lloyd, Paul Kallenbach and Paul Schoff, discusses the different laws and regulations that impact the TMT space in Australia ...
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has just enacted a revamped investor residency programme, entitling successful applicants to a permanent residence certificate (PRC). The Qualifying criteria are: Villas a. Investment of not less than $300,000 in actual construction of a new home, or in renovation of a distressed property as a home for the applicant and his or her dependants, on the islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, South Caicos, Middle Caicos or North Caicos; or b ...
Introduction:The Consumer Protection Act, Cap. 326D (‘the Act’) aims at protecting consumer rights by, among other things, prohibiting and penalizing the use of unfair contract terms by suppliers of services. The Act is administered and enforced by the Fair Trading Commission (‘the FTC’). This article summarises the effect of the Act on how service providers can legally contract with their customers. This article does not focus on suppliers of goods ...
After a slight pause, the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - are continuing on their path to entering the euro zone, which was first entered by Estonia in 2011 ...
South Africa has a rapidly evolving climate change policy environment, which is in-keeping with the country¡¦s view of itself as a developing country leader in the climate change arena. Part of the policy environment includes attention to financial mechanisms that can be marshaled in support of the response to climate change ...
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) could mean trouble for many Community trade marks. There is now a heightened risk that national courts will invalidate these trade marks if they have not been used extensively enough in the European Union. Is broader protection better? A Community trade mark (CTM) confers protection in all 27 EU member states ...
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. 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 ...
The issue of Adwords has become increasingly important in trade mark law. When you buy a word from Google as an Adword, this has the effect that whenever anyone enters that word as a search term, your pop-up advert will appear on the screen together with the so-called ‘natural results’. You can buy generic words as Adwords, but you can also buy words that happen to be trade marks ...
