The strategy for the application of Portugal 2030 was designed around five main objectives of the European Union1: a smarter, greener, more connected, more social Europe that is closer to its citizens. At the national level, these strategic objectives of the European Union are embodied in four thematic agendas of the Portugal 2030 strategy2 ...
INVT SPE LLC v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, Appeal No. 2020-1903 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 31, 2022) In its only precedential patent case last week, the Federal Circuit issued a lengthy opinion that revolved around claims that are drawn to “capability,” particularly for computer-implemented claims ...
The material issue of the case, in which the procedural question arose, was whether two decisions by the Alver Municipality regarding property tax for «Mongstad kraftvarmeverk» and «Mongstad raffineri» owned by Equinor were lawful. In order to value the properties, the municipality had engaged an appraiser. Now, before the case is to be decided by the High Court, the parties disagreed about whether the appraiser should be considered an expert witness or not ...
The California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, issued a decision on June 29, 2022, holding that internal investigation records of an elected peace officer do not constitute "personnel records" exempt from California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests. Background The CPRA provides a mechanism through which members of the public can access records in the possession of state and local agencies. It does not, however, provide an absolute right of access to all public records ...
September 1, 2022 By: Nora Sheriff, Gwenneth O’Hara, and Lillian Rafii On August 19, 2022, the California investor-owned utilities filed a joint motion for official notice at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), saying that the recently adopted Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (HR 5376) is “directly relevant” to the CPUC’s open net energy metering (NEM) proceeding. The CPUC is currently contemplating a revision to its NEM tariff (referred to as NEM 2 ...
Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, On 23 August 2022, the Malaysia Competition Commission (“MyCC”) launched a public consultation on the proposed renewal of a Block Exemption Order (“BEO”) in respect of liner shipping services covered under a VSA. The renewal application was made pursuant to Section 8 of the Competition Act as the earlier BEO granted expired on 6 July 2022. The press release by MyCC (“Press Release”) is accessible here ...
On 21 July 2022, the Chair of the COVID-19 Inquiry ('the Inquiry'), Baroness Heather Hallett, issued an opening statement. As part of her commitment to streamlining the process, the Chair has invited applicants to group themselves together with others with a similar interest, wherever possible, to help manage the potentially large number of people and organisations seeking Core Participant status ...
The Supreme Court recently considered, in the Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz1 decision, the applicable test to determine whether a delay is inordinate and constitutes an abuse of process that could lead to a stay of administrative proceedings. In this case, a Saskatchewan lawyer requested that the disciplinary proceedings against him be terminated due to a delay that he claimed was inordinate and constituted an abuse of process ...
Goods and Services Tax AlertSummons not to be issued to Managing Director, CEO, CFOs of companies routinely By the recent Guidelines for issuance of summons under Section 70 of the CGST Act – Instruction 03/2022- 23 [GST-Investigation], indiscriminate issuance of summons has been discouraged, and officers have been advised to issue summons judiciously ...
On August 11, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Zolly v. City of Oakland, holding that a group of property owners had pleaded sufficient facts to maintain a challenge to the City’s solid-waste franchise fee, under Article XIII C of the California Constitution, commonly called “Proposition 26 ...
If you’re an underwriter, originator, closer, attorney or other professional who specializes in HUD-insured loans, fair housing principles probably aren’t top of mind as you navigate your workday. Still, it pays to have a working knowledge of HUD’s protected classes. Dinsmore was recently involved in a 223(f) closing that provides an instructive case in point ...
Following the enactment of the Law on Social Security on 2 November 2019 and issuance of Sub-Decree 32 on the Social Security Scheme for Pension Fund for Persons under the Scope of the Labour Law dated 4 March 2021 (“Sub-Decree 32”) (further detail can be found in this link), the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training promulgated and issued of the following regulations to further detail the formalities and procedures for the pension scheme:
On August 24, 2022, the IRS issued Notice 2022-36, 2021-15 I.R.B. 986, (the "Notice"), which grants significant penalty relief for taxpayers who failed to file certain tax or information returns for tax years 2019 and 2020. However taxpayers must file their missing returns on or before September 30, 2022, in order to obtain the penalty relief. This Notice presents a rare opportunity to taxpayers who have not filed the requisite returns to avoid onerous penalties ...
Best Medical International, Inc. v. Elekta Inc., Appeal Nos. 2021-2099, -2100 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit addressed issues of jurisdiction where a challenged claim was canceled through ex parte reexamination during pending inter partes review proceedings, and otherwise affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s determination that challenged claims were obvious over the prior art ...
On September 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, which directs federal agencies to include in certain federal contracts a clause requiring the contractor to comply with all guidance published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. Included in those guidelines is a mandate that all federal contractor employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless the employee is legally entitled to an accommodation ...
pOver the last several years, traditional insurance has become increasingly expensive as insurers use risks and claims associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical risk, supply-chain disruption, inflation and intensifying severe weather events to justify premium raises and coverage reductions ...
In July, the Antimonopoly Committee asked the Ministry of Strategic Industries to update the conditions for providing state aid to companies that develop, manufacture, repair, and service aviation equipment and engines. What to update and how, the committee wrote in recently adopted recommendations . Asters lawyer Olena Gadomska told Mind what the latter envisage, why AMCU is resorting to such changes and who they will affect ...
Law No. 21,398 (known as the "Pro-Consumer Law"), which amended Law No. 19,496, Consumer Protection Act ("CPA"), reinforced the right of withdrawal in distance purchases, establishing that: Consumers may exercise the right of withdrawal or repentance, within a period of 10 days from receipt of the product, without expression of cause, with respect to all purchases of goods, without conditioning the right to the will of the supplier ...
SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan (SyCipLaw) has kept its Tier 1 ranking in M&A and Restructuring and Insolvency in the latest rankings released by IFLR1000, the guide to the world’s leading financial and corporate law firms. Earlier this year, SyCipLaw also received Tier 1 rankings in Banking, Capital markets: Equity, Project development, and in Project finance ...
The Philippines is party to double taxation agreements (DTAs) with 43 countries. These DTAs contain exchange of information (EOI) provisions, which oblige contracting parties to exchange details that are needed to carry out the provisions of the DTAs or the domestic laws that concern the taxes applicable to the DTAs. To this end, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) consistently develops its EOI programme and has, in the past decade, circulated administrative issuances to facilitate EOI ...
The draft diploma on the simplification of licenses and procedures for companies in the environmental area was submitted to public consultation on the 3rd of August (the “Proposal”). The Proposal contains measures mainly in the environmental area, but also measures with a transversal impact, applicable to the administrative activity and public authorities (e.g., the certification mechanism for tacit approvals) ...
Since the lifting of the strict lockdown in the first quarter of 2022 and the decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Thai economy has shown signs of recovery. However, Thailand still faces a battle in bringing its economy back up to pre-pandemic levels in order to compete with its ASEAN neighbors, not to mention the world ...
