The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Massachusetts Bay Insurance Company v. Christian Funeral Directors, Inc., No. 18-5267 (6th Cir. Dec. 26, 2018), recently upheld a district court’s declination of jurisdiction over an insurer’s declaratory judgment action on coverage ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Massachusetts Bay Insurance Company v. Christian Funeral Directors, Inc., No. 18-5267 (6th Cir. Dec. 26, 2018), recently upheld a district court’s declination of jurisdiction over an insurer’s declaratory judgment action on coverage ...
Minority shareholders – often forced to silently accept the rule of the majority – should be given a voice. In May last year, Jerry Low, a minority investor in Asiatic Group (Holdings), wrote an open letter to the management highlighting concerns regarding the SGX-listed company’s poor performance, juxtaposing this against the high remuneration enjoyed by its senior management team ...
The tsunami of consolidation activity in the dental services industry has created remarkable financial opportunities for dentists and investors. Primarily, these opportunities play out in the form of Dental Services Organizations formed by entrepreneurial dentists and/or private financial interests through the acquisition of established, profitable practices ...
Law No. 21,121 (the “Law”), which came into force on November 20, 2018, amends the Criminal Code, Law No. 20,393 on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities, and Law No. 19,913 on Money Laundering, in connection with various criminal conducts relating to corruption and conflicts of interest. The following is a summary of the main aspects of the Law: 1.Domestic Passive and Active Bribery ...
To protect and stimulate creators to increase innovation and encourage entrepreneurship, Norwegian authorities are changing the law. In 2018 we received several proposals towards strengthening the rights of those who create new ideas or build their business on intellectual property. Looking back at 2018, we see a year in which the Norwegian intellectual property (IP) legislation has been in movement. Technology is developing fast, and so must the law protecting technology ...
Despite a positive and active start in H12018 with high M&A activity in the Norwegian market, the total number of completed deals in Norway in 2018 will be significantly lower than in 2017. YTD it has been registered 248 completed deals in Norway compared to 346 in 2017 (full year) ...
Most companies go to great lengths to protect and maintain their intellectual property (IP). These companies recognize the value of their IP and work towards its development, sustainability and commercialization. IP strategy customary includes where and when to file patent applications, how to choose a brand name and register it, how to protect and enforce copyrights, protect trade secrets, etc ...
On 26 October 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved a decision to revise the Company Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revision), with the aim of supplementing and improving the existing share repurchase regime. We have set out a brief introduction to this Revision below. Background It has only been five years since the last revision to the Company Law of the People’s Republic of China (Company Law) ...
In the latest development in an eventful year, Federal Decree-Law 24 of 2018 introduces amendments to the Federal Penal Code, originally enacted as Federal Law 3 of 1987. The amendments are designed to make the Penal Code consistent with other recent federal legislation and current federal enforcement policies. Only ten provisions of the statute have been affected, out of the more than 400 total articles contained in the statute ...
“Arbitration agreement” is defined under section 19 of the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap 609) as an agreement by the parties to submit to arbitration all or certain disputes which have arisen or which may arise between them in respect of a defined legal relationship, whether contractual or not. Disputes submitted to arbitration may involve contractual claims and non-contractual claims, such as tortious claims ...
Michigan voters approved Proposal 1 and made Michigan the twelfth U.S. jurisdiction to legalize recreational marijuana. The Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (MRTMA) went into effect December 6. What has been lost in all the smoke from the past several weeks is how MRTMA impacts the regulation of industrial hemp ...
The end is near. 2018 is fast coming to a close, and it is that time of year when corporate lawyers are counting—not the number of shopping days left until Christmas, but the number weeks, days and hours left before the end of the fiscal year. Admittedly, in the scramble to close deals, insurance requirements and indemnity provisions may not be at the top of the list of critical deal points for clients and counsel ...
Executives and in-house counsel should be aware that traveling with sensitive data can lead to its seizure—with potentially severe consequences worldwide. Recently, Parliament in the United Kingdom seized from a traveling executive a USB drive containing data that had been produced in a United States lawsuit between Six4Three, a software company, and Facebook. Put simply, that data was in the wrong place at the wrong time ...
Increased federal oversight may be on the horizon for skilled nursing facility involuntary transfers and discharges. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) included in its 2019 Work Plan reviewing SNFs’ involuntary transfers and discharges, focusing on reviewing whether State agencies have effectively investigated and enforced proper transfer and discharge procedures ...
In December of 2018, EU Court of Justice Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona concluded that the United Kingdom may unilaterally withdraw its intention to leave the European Union before 29 March 2019 and therefore remain in the EU. This is so long as the revocation notice is made before the formal conclusion of a withdrawal agreement and it respects the UK’s constitutional requirements ...
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 4, 2018, inHelsinn Healthcare SA v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.as to whether the “on-sale” bar under the America Invents Act (“AIA”) renders an inventor’s private sale to a third party as prior art for purposes of determining patentability. 35 U.S.C ...
The UAE federal government has recently issued a raft of important legislation. The raft addresses and updates areas of law that are key to businesses in the jurisdiction. Amongst this legislation is Federal Decree-Law 14 of 2018 concerning the central bank and the organisation of financial institutions and activities (the New Banking Law) ...
As in previous years, the California legislature kept busy in 2018. As a result, a number of new and noteworthy employment laws will go into effect on January 1, 2019, and beyond. Much of the legislation stems from the #MeToo movement by strengthening harassment and discrimination protection, imposing broader anti-harassment training obligations, updating lactation accommodations and mandating female presence on boards of public companies ...
In February of this year, the Securities Exchange Commission issued its updated Statement and Guidance on Public Company Cybersecurity Disclosures. In April, the SEC issued an Order that, among other things, levied a $35 million fine against Yahoo! Inc. for failing to properly report a 2014 data breach. These actions support the view that the SEC is consciously committing attention and resources to cybersecurity issues affecting public companies ...
Since the GDPR has been in force, almost every company has, among other things, dealt with issues of the permissibility of direct marketing and other marketing activities under data protection law. At their data protection conference on Nov. 07-08, 2018, the German data protection supervisory authorities issued a new "orientation guide" on this topic (as of November 2018) ...
