On January 8, 2018, the California Court of Appeal for Division 4 of the First Appellate District issued a decision in Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association (“Alameda”). The outcome in Alameda results in conflicting decisions in California appellate courts on the appropriate “vested rights” analysis where pension rights are being reduced or eliminated for existing employees ...
On February 21, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued interpretive guidance to assist public companies in preparing disclosures concerning cybersecurity risks and incidents ...
Best-known for its stunning natural beauty—jewel-colored waters, soft sandy beaches, and lush mountain ridges—the British Virgin Islands also excels among her peers in the international financial services industry. Notably, the Territory is relentless in its pursuit of refining and advancing its financial services legal structures and complying with worldwide regulatory regimes ...
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the scope of the Dodd-Frank Act's anti-retaliation measures. The decision resolved a split in authority by excluding from Dodd-Frank's whistleblower protections those persons reporting suspected violations only within their companies. In reversing the Ninth Circuit, the Court held that "Dodd-Frank's anti-retaliation provision does not extend to an individual who has not reported a violation of the securities laws to the SEC ...
UAE Federal Law 20 of 2016 (Regarding the pledge of moveables as a security for debts) (the Pledge Law) introduced a new regime for registering a pledge over moveable assets which are pledged as security for the repayment of a debt. We reported on this law in our inBrief of January 2017, New UAE Pledge Law Over Moveable Assets. The actual registration of pledges was subject to establishment of a security register pursuant to the implementing regulations issued under the Pledge Law ...
Every now and then, a dispute comes along that adds an extraordinary amount to the law. One such dispute is the Clearvu trade mark case.We have reported on the case of Cochrane Steel Products (Pty) Ltd v M-Systems Group (Pty) Ltd on a number of occasions. This was the case in which a South African court had to consider whether or not it is unlawful for a company to bid on the trade mark of a competitor as a keyword/search term ...
In South Africa, the song Akanamali, sung by the artist Sun-El Musician and featuring Samthing Soweto, was one of the most popular songs of 2017. Towards the end of the year, South African financial services giant First National Bank (“FNB”) ran a campaign to promote its products and services. It called this campaign Akanamali and featured the hook of the song, which was about a lack of money ...
A South African judgment dealing with joint ownership of copyright in databases has recently come to light. The judgment was handed down almost a year ago, but it seems to have slipped under the radar. This judgment will, however, be of interest to those involved in IP.The case is The Philanthropic Collection (Pty) Ltd v Girls & Boys South Africa ...
It’s interesting how often trade marks and politics intersect, especially in South Africa!In the most recent example, the issue was whether a political party that had broken away from the ruling African National Congress (“ANC”) – the African Democratic Change – had infringed the rights of the ruling party. As is commonly known, the logo of the ANC features the colours black, green and gold, as well as an image of a hand grasping a spear ...
Since not only individual people, but also the overall project, are being presented, online presentation can be divided into two main parts. First is the management of personal social media. Avoid any disrespectful or offensive discourse, as well as any ambiguous posts and photos. Or as a minimum , do not display them publicly. Secondly, visual communication is absolutely crucial to protect the name of a reliable project ...
Increase in HSR Thresholds.The jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act) will increase February 28, 2018 and will apply to any transaction closing on or after that date. The revised thresholds will remain in effect until the next annual adjustment, expected in the first quarter of 2019. “Size of Transaction” Threshold ...
In an effort for the South African government to assess the state of transformation of publicly listed companies, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (the “B-BBEE Act”), read together with the B-BBEE Regulations, requires that all companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”) report to the B-BBEE Commission annually on their compliance with broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) ...
As seen in Property Casualty 360: 1. Policies & procedures The methods employees utilize to steal from their employers are fairly common. Some examples include falsifying expenses, inflating expenses, double billing expenses, misusing petty cash accounts, using the company credit card for personal expenses, routing money to fictitious vendors, fabricating invoices, and putting friends and family on the payroll ...
In an increasingly connected world, the protection of privacy and personal data has become a key concern for legislators in a number of jurisdictions. In South Africa, an attempt to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy resulted in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPI”), which was gazetted on 26 November 2013 ...
On 15 December 2017, the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”) published a memorandum of understanding entered into between the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (the “CIPC”) and the Broad-Based Black Empowerment Commission (the “B-BBEE Commission”) (the “CIPC MOU”) ...
Broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) is a policy of the South African government that is aimed at increasing participation by previously disadvantaged South Africans in economic activities. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (the “B-BBEE Act”) is the primary legislation through which this B-BBEE policy is implemented ...
After Atlanta-based developer, Carter USA, pulled out as the master developer of the Banks Project along Cincinnati’s riverfront, the project effectively stalled. However, the Joint Banks Steering Committee (JBSC), charged with offering recommendations with respect to this project, reconvened January 23, 2018 to take two actions ...
Country overview 1. Give an overview of the country’s economy, its structure and main characteristics, and prevailing government economic policy, particularly as regards foreign investment. The Philippines is an archipelago composed of more than 7,000 islands with 82 provinces divided in 18 regions. Rich in natural resources, it has a total land area of about 300,000 square kilometres. It is divided into three major island groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao ...
We previously reported on oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding which court has original jurisdiction to hear challenges to the Clean Water Act’s “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) definition. On January 22, 2018, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense that only district courts have original jurisdiction to hear such challenges ...
This is a reminder to all corporations whose employees or former employees exercised an incentive stock option or made a purchase under the corporation's employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) in 2017 ...
Diversity has been a trending topic for the last years. It shows that we, as a society, are acknowledging the past practices of our industries in which one small group of individuals have a platform to thrive and grow within our institution while other groups might have a harder time. There are exceptions to this rule, but it is undisputable that for certain people due to their sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. it’s harder to break the glass ceiling ...
In case you have been in a coma, major tax changes to the Internal Revenue Code were passed in December 2017. See Pub. L. 115-97 (115th Cong., 1st Sess.). Those changes make it much more attractive (from a tax perspective) to arrange one’s affairs like a business owner. Broadly speaking, the new tax law changed the landscape so that many business owners will now benefit from dramatically lower tax rates (e.g., the corporate rate has not been this low since 1939) ...
Comment letters to oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) companies by the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated several major areas of concern for the Division during 2017 regarding companies’ disclosures. Many of the topics addressed were similar to those raised by the Division’s staff in 2015-2016, but some were new, such as the staff’s focus on non-U.S ...
Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 15th in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time ...
