The Digital Economy Act 2017 introduces a new electronic communications code, intended to facilitate widespread connectivity and address some of the critical issues that currently beset the telecoms industry. The current electronic communications code was issued in 1984 and it was designed to facilitate the installation and maintenance of fixed line communications networks ...
Recent proposed amendments to the rules of Strate, South Africa’s central securities depository (the “Strate Rules”) will effect a significant change to how uncertificated securities are pledged, but will not solve all of the problems that market participants hoped would be addressed ...
On 30 June 2017, after an initial round of public commentary undertaken by the JSE Limited (“JSE”) on the proposed amendments to the JSE Debt Listings Requirements (“DLRs”), the South African Registrar of Securities Services announced that “Part 2” of the 2016 amendments are available on the Financial Services Board’s website for further public comment. The deadline to review and comment on the proposals is 14 July 2017 ...
Following South Africa’s sovereign credit rating downgrade by ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and, on 9 June 2017, Moody’s, as well as developments in political circles around allegations of “state capture”, relations between private business and the country’s public entities have become a hot topic ...
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Matal v. Tam,1 a high-profile dispute implicating NFL football, Portland dance-rock, and the Lanham Act’s disparagement clause. In its eagerly anticipated decision, the Court, voting 8-0, struck down the Lanham Act’s prohibition on disparaging trademarks as facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment ...
View the PDF version of the June 2017 IP Beacon. Supreme Court Ruling Reigns in Patent Infringement Forum ShoppingBy Brian Kwok and Jason W. Whitney On Monday, May 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, No. 16-341 unanimously overruled a longstanding Federal Circuit decision that allowed patent infringement suits to be filed in nearly any U.S. state or jurisdiction ...
In recent months, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved the Protection of Privacy Regulations (Information Security) 5777-2017 (hereinafter: the "Regulations"). The Regulations mark a landmark change in the field of information security in Israel and they impose substantial obligations on database owners ...
The May 2017 issue of theInternational Financial Law Review (IFLR) includes an international briefing article by SyCipLaw partner Melyjane G. Bertillo-Ancheta entitled "Philippines: Amendments to the FX Regulations". The article discusses the circulars, issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the central monetary authority of the Philippines), amending the country's foreign exchange regulations ...
I OVERVIEW The private equity industry has continued to develop in Chile but at rates lower than in previous years. Growth rates of 2.1 per cent for the year ended 31 December 2015 and an expected rate of 1.6 per cent for the year ended 31 December 2016 have certainly affected the investment activity generally. Chile continues to offer, however, an attractive business environment and a stable legal framework ...
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that United States patent rights are exhausted by the sale of a product by the patentee or its licensee “regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale.” Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc., No. 15 1189, slip op. at 2 (U.S. May 30, 2017). In so doing, the Court reversed the Federal Circuit’s February 2016, en banc decision ...
The French market has been known to be restrictive due to the banking monopoly, which classically restricted the origination of loans and the acquisition of unmatured receivables to credit institutions and financing companies, with small exceptions. Due to the overregulation of credit institutions and financing companies, many transactions were structured abroad ...
In recent years, company director David Topkins was prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice for conspiring with third-party sellers to fix the prices of posters, prints and framed art on Amazon Marketplace. Amazon Marketplace is an online e-commerce marketplace for third-party sellers, where the sellers control all pricing and shipping decisions on products sold ...
Blockchain, a type of distributed ledger technology, has garnered heightened interest as a secure method to conduct transactions. In this article, we provide an introduction to blockchain and its uses. In later articles, we will explore how this technology is being implemented to transform the financial services industry ...
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, No. 16-341 (May 22, 2017) unanimously overruled a longstanding Federal Circuit decision that allowed patent infringement suits to be filed nearly anywhere, even in venues where accused infringers sold no more than a few allegedly infringing products ...
On May 4, 2017, the en banc Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., Appeal 2015-1944 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 16, 2016) to consider whether the findings of the Patent Trial & Appeals Board (“PTAB”) regarding 35 U.S.C. § 315(b), which governs the timeliness of filing a petition for inter partes review (“IPR”), are subject to judicial review on appeal ...
The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico recently filed a voluntary petition for relief on behalf of Puerto Rico in federal court there. The filing required the Chief Justice of the United States to designate a district court judge to conduct the case. In recent months Chief Justice Roberts appointed District Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York ...
A recent article in the Financial Times caused some raised eyebrows in the fund finance market by implying that subscription line facilities create substantial risks to banks and investors. The article references a memo on Oaktree Capital’s website by Howard Marks, Oaktree’s co-chairman and founder, in which he discusses some of the perceived costs and risks associated with such facilities. If readers dig into the memo, they will find that Mr ...
Disruption. Possibly the most overused word in today's global lexicon, it refers to the upheaval that is created when a new business (these days, usually founded by a smart alec entrepreneur) uproots an established method of delivering a product or service. Think Spotify, a music-streaming business that has sounded the death knell of CDs. It has, as its most vocal opponent, pop star Taylor Swift, who felt that it did not adequately value her art ...
Created in 2007 with a view to provide French law with a security agent regime in syndicated loans as competitive as the Anglo-saxon security trustee, the provisions of Article 2328-1 of the French Civil Code have been subject to criticism because of the legal uncertainty related to the nature of the security agent''s powers and its too limited scope ...
EnerDry holds numerous patents based on inventions by its founder and CEO Arne Sloth Jensen, including European Patent EP 1 070 223 B1. This patent relates to steam dryers with a specific type of cyclone, which substantially improves the capacity and efficiency of steam dryers ...
Dispute is heating up over IRS’s attempts to get personal information about users of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Last November, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) filed a petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. It sought the court’s permission to serve a “John Doe” summons on Coinbase, Inc., a virtual currency exchanger in San Francisco ...
“‘Papa! What’s money?’ Mr Dombey was in a difficulty. He would have liked to give him some explanation involving the terms circulating-medium, currency, depreciation of currency, paper, bullion, rates of exchange, value of precious metals in the market, and so forth; but looking down at the little chair, and seeing what a long way down it was, he answered: ‘Gold, and silver, and copper. Guineas, shillings, half-pence ...
Cybersecurity is one of the most critical challenges facing our nation and our economy. U.S. regulators on both the state and federal level are working to keep pace with the challenges and risks posed by cybercrime. On March 1, 2017, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued a new cybersecurity regulation designed to protect financial institutions, their information technology systems, and their customers from cybercrime1 ...
In addition to registering their trade marks with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (“CIPC”), brand owners should ensure that their trade marks are protected online. One way of doing this is by registering a domain name. What is a Domain Name?A domain name allows a party to establish its identity on the internet. It assists internet users to easily identify brand owners on the internet and to access their sites on the web ...
