California defamation law continues to evolve as the courts synthesize well-settled legal principles with ever-changing technological realities. On July 21, 2017, California’s First District Court of Appeal issued a published opinion in ZL Technologies v. Does 1-7 (July 21, 2017) 2017 DJ DAR 6999 ...
It is safe to say that BMW protects its trade marks fiercely. As a result, the company has done more than its fair share to shape South African trade mark law. A recent UK trade mark decision involving BMW will therefore be of considerable interest to businesses in South Africa.In a number of cases involving BMW, South African courts have made it very clear that a trade mark registration is only infringed if a third party makes unauthorised “trade mark use” of that trade mark ...
Colleagues and clients alike often comment on the varied, topical and evolving nature of my field of expertise, IP law, as evidenced from my articles over the years. IP is a field of law that’s forever growing, highly relevant, often fascinating and which deals with everyday tangible issues, brands and products that we encounter in the marketplace and media. Three recent news stories show just how much IP intersects with other worlds ...
Two unusual copyright stories are back in the news.The first is the one that involves a monkey, a selfie and a copyright dispute. British photographer David Slater visited Indonesia to photograph the endangered crested black macaque, seemingly with a view to highlighting the species’ plight. During the course of taking his photos, Slater left his camera on a tripod, apparently hoping that the macaques might take selfies. One took the bait and the image became a sensation ...
On July 26, 2017, the Knesset approved a new Design Law (the “Design Law” or the “Law”). The Law will come into force 12 months following its publication. “Designs” are defined as the visual features of products (such as cars, electrical appliances, screen displays, furniture, jewelry, fashion, etc.), which are not purely utilitarian ...
The Luxembourg law on the exploration and use of space resources entered into force on 2 August 2017 and placed Luxembourg among the most innovative space-oriented nations in the world. The new law provides a legal framework for the “new space” activities. It aims at the further development of the constantly growing Luxembourg space industry employing already more than 700 highly skilled workers ...
It's a quiet Friday afternoon edging uneventfully toward the end of the day when a client calls: they’re interested in acquiring a U.S.-based widget maker. After your internal conflict check clears, reality hits – what do you do now? Whether your client is a foreign (non-U.S.) business targeting a U.S.-based company, or the U.S. target of a foreign purchaser, your deal may have Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) implications ...
A recent decision from the Eastern District of Kentucky doubles as a primer on the enforcement of FCA releases in settlement agreements. Courts often invalidate post-filing FCA releases—those executed after a qui tam lawsuit has already been filed—reasoning that, by statute, a relator cannot release claims that belong to the government ...
Most employers are familiar with Glassdoor, Inc.’s website, which allows current and former employees to post anonymous reviews of an employer. But Glassdoor is often a thorn in the side of employers because many negative posts are the result of disgruntled employees or competitors seeking an advantage in recruiting ...
A recent Tenth Circuit decision shines light on a new avenue to challenge cannabis businesses, even in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal. Although the potential federal criminal threat to cannabis businesses in states that have legalized medical or recreational cannabis has been relatively well-discussed, the potential civil threat has received little attention. In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper, 859 F.3d 865 (10th Cir ...
New Ruling – calculation of an hourly employee’s last wage for the purpose of calculating the severance pay to which he is entitled will be made according to the partiality of his position throughout the term of his employment On June 4, 2017, the National Labor Court rendered a judgment in Labor Appeal 44824-03-16 Y.B. See Resources Ltd. vs Adhenom Berh Teami (the “See Resources Case“) ...
The Mexican government announced, on July 19, 2017, the fourth bid of Round Two. This will be the 14th upstream bid round in Mexico since passage of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 2.4) comprises 30 offshore blocks for exploration in the Perdido Belt, the Salina Basin, the Mexican Ranges (Cordilleras Mexicanas), and the Yucatán Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, covering collectively 70,844 km2, with prospective resources of approximately 4 ...
Many employers routinely ask job applicants about their salary or earnings history, either in written job applications, during interviews, or during post-offer salary negotiations. Such activities will soon be prohibited in San Francisco. Earlier this month, the City’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban employers from asking job applicants about their salary history or from considering such information in determining whether to hire an applicant or what salary to offer ...
SyCipLaw''s Employment & Immigration Update (Volume XV, Issue 1) features updates and articles on issuances from the Department of Labor & Employment (DOLE), including the new guidelines on contracting and subcontracting, and the implementing rules and regulations of theAnti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act,the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and those governingthe employment and working conditions of collectors in the debt collection industry ...
A CFO of a company was dismissed for poor performance. He sued his employer arguing that his dismissal was unjustified. The company’s defense was based on several emails produced in court which were supposed to show the CFO’s poor quality work.Under French law, the golden rule is that any system collecting or processing data including professional email systems must be declared to the Data Protection Agency (“CNIL”) in order to be legal ...
A regional director was fired for poor performance.According to her dismissal letter, she was terminated because of her behavior that had led a number of co-workers to suffer from stress and harassment. More particularly, the letter pointed out her directive management style and her authoritative leadership, a lack of consistency and honesty, the fact that she aimed at discouraging her team members and did not treat them with respect using an insulting and degrading language ...
An employee was fired after several sick leave periods, the last one of more than seven months. Her dismissal was based on the disturbance of the running of the prospecting and customer retention department that had resulted from her frequent and prolonged absences.She sued her employer before the labor court, seeking to have her dismissal declared unfair.The Court of Appeals rejected her claim ...
Under California law, employees are entitled to “one day’s rest therefrom in seven,” unless certain statutory exceptions apply. In Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc., 2 Cal. 5th 1074 (2017), the California Supreme Court addressed several ambiguities in the statutory language, giving employers much needed guidance on how to comply with California’s day of rest requirements ...
Two and a half years after the expiry of the deadline for the implementation of the Third Energy Package, the Macedonian authorities seem eager to finalise this process in the near future. The new draft legislation has been in the pipeline for quite some time, but until now its adoption was postponed due to different reasons ...
Trade union opposition to the use of temporary employment services (“TESs”) – commonly referred to as labour brokers – and concerns that TES employees were not being accorded rights granted to them in terms of South African labour legislation, led to the introduction of amendments to the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) that came into force in January 2015 ...
A number of local California cities and counties have passed their own minimum wage ordinances with a more aggressive schedule of minimum wage increases. While some cities and counties already implemented incremental increases in January, others increased on July 1, 2017, as follows: Locality Minimum Wage Eff. 7/1/17 Emeryville $15.20 (56 or more employees) $14 ...
We’ve written a fair bit about copyright recently, and much of our focus has been on how the digital age has brought about a marked change in attitude towards copyright (often bordering on ignorance), and has made copyright infringement much easier. In this article, we look at two further examples that reflect this trend. We also look at proposed changes to South African copyright law.The first of our examples deals with sharing images ...
A highly unusual thing about Google, which according to Brand Finance has now become the world’s most valuable brand (USD109.4-billion), is that it is seemingly able to defy the rule that if your trade mark becomes a verb, you’ve pretty much lost the trade mark because it’s become generic ...
