Effective January 1, 2018, California employers are prohibited from asking an applicant about their salary history. Now a Ninth Circuit decision, Rizo v. Yovino, (9th Cir. 16-15372 4/9/18), has made it clear that employers are prohibited from making a salary determination based on the applicant’s prior salary history ...
Technologies based on blockchains and AI imply a considerable change for our society. Being that the security of data exchanged is vital, companies must begin adopting a long-term approach right now. Many businesses develop services based on blockchains, in particular in the financial services sector. Cryptocurrencies, one example of blockchain use, transform the way in which some monetary transactions are made, far from the oversight of financial institutions and governments ...
Hiring an employee is exciting — it’s an opportunity for both employer and prospective employee to develop a mutually beneficial and profitable relationship. However, when done incorrectly, hiring can create liability. To avoid turning a potentially promising encounter into a problematic one, VARs and MSPs need to adhere to a few best practices. Ask the right questions. Candidates should be asked similar questions geared toward determining if they can perform the job ...
In a rare move, the president of the United States effectuated the termination of a proposed hostile takeover of Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) by Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ: AVGO) over national security concerns ...
In light of the increasing significance of cybersecurity incidents, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently found it necessary to provide further guidance with respect to cybersecurity disclosure requirements under the federal securities laws as they apply to public operating companies ...
Speaking of compliance with tax obligations comes to our mind the duty to pay taxes (noun) as the Tax on the Transfer of Goods and Provision of Services (VAT) or Income Tax (ISR), which undoubtedly It is true; but equally certain it is that with the payment obligation exists another set of obligations formal or adjective. In this dual context of formal and substantive tax obligations, is of great relevance filing tax returns ...
On April 2, 2018, the United States Supreme Court in Encino Motor Cars, LLC v. Navarro, Justice Thomas writing for the majority, held that car dealership “service advisors” are “salesm[e]n… primarily engaged in… servicing automobiles” and therefore are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements under 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(10)(A) ...
This is a story of the age, a story of a character that became a global sensation thanks to the internet. The story is also about the creator of that character, who had the foresight to understand that the character might well become a valuable marketing property and took steps to legally protect the character (its name and image) through IP law, particularly trade mark and copyright law, thus creating “the IP rights” and making the creator “the IP owner” ...
Two recent European IP decisions are a welcome reminder of that much-overlooked area of IP law: registered designs. If patent protection is primarily about functionality, design protection is primarily about product appearance (more on this later). These European cases are worth discussing because there are very few court decisions on registered designs in South Africa. They are also worth discussing because they highlight two fundamental aspects of design law ...
Last month, Alabama and South Dakota became the latest states to enact data breach notification laws. All 50 states now have such laws, but the laws and companies’ obligations thereunder vary widely from state to state. The Alabama and South Dakota laws—described in detail in the chart linked below—are similar to the laws of other states, but each have a few important features to be aware of ...
Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is big news at the moment, so it’s no surprise that lawyers are considering the IP issues relating to AI. Some of the implications are really quite profound. In this article, I will discuss some of the copyright and trade mark implications. The copyright issues of AI have been discussed by a number of people ...
The Employment Insurance System Act 2017 (“EIS Act”) came into effect on 1 January 2018. For the first time in Malaysia some form of unemployment benefits are provided for private employees. Previously, employees who were terminated or retrenched did not receive any benefits during the period they were unemployed ...
Patricia Gannon, founding partner at Karanović & Nikolić, was recently appointed Chair of the European Forum at theInternational Bar Association ...
Now that the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has issued the new regulations addressing part-time employment, let us take a closer look at what this means. The new measure is Ministerial Resolution 31 of 2018. It does not address part-time work as such, but rather part-time work for someone other than the employee’s regular employer. Before this new measure was promulgated, the Labour Law accommodated part-time work for an employee working for only a single employer ...
Violating California's Occupational Safety and Health Act May Lead to Civil Penalties On February 8, 2018, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that local prosecutors could pursue civil penalties against employers for violating workplace safety standards under California's unfair competition law and fair advertising law, despite the employer's federal preemption challenges. Solus Indus. Innovations, LLC, 228 Cal. Rptr. 3d 406 (2018) ...
Discover Luxembourg's space adventure and the challenges the space industry will face in the next decade. Arendt & Medernach, the leading law firm in Luxembourg, continuously supported the space and satellite industries and have developed the firm’s expertise and experience in these domains. We are now really looking forward to helping other businesses on their journeys into space ...
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated ruling that carries important implications for securities class action litigation, now making it easier for plaintiffs to pursue public offering claims in state courts. InCyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, 583 U.S ...
Parties to a contract can give the right to enforce an obligation in the contract to a third party. For example, they are very often used where a large business enters into a contract with a supplier and wants its group companies to be able to enforce the contract. In England, this is governed by the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. In Scotland, the legal recognition for this has been a common law principle, jus quaesitum tertio ...
This article provides a brief review of MSHA enforcement data and a look at MSHA’s regulatory agenda. MSHA Enforcement Data (data from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017) MSHA issued 104,412 enforcement actions to mine operators in 2017, an increase of approximately 11,793 or 11.3 percent from 2016. Of these, 58,083 (or 55.63 percent) were issued to metal/nonmetal operators while 46,329 (or 44.37 percent) were issued to coal operators ...
New rules will apply to disability benefit claims and appeals under certain plans that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), effective for claims made after April 1, 2018. According to the Department of Labor (DOL), the new rules are intended to provide greater protection to claimants, and are modeled on the enhanced claims and appeals procedures that apply to health benefit claims under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ...
Congress recently enacted comprehensive tax reform (the “Act”). This memorandum highlights some of the provisions of the Act that are particularly relevant to U.S. multinational groups, with a focus on the provisions relating to income associated with intangible property, as defined for applicable U.S. federal income tax purposes. New Corporate Tax Rate The Act significantly changes the U.S ...
As the Commission for the Financial Market (the “Commission”) came into full force this January (read previous news alert here), the regulation of the Chilean financial market took a step forward in terms of institutionalism and modernization. In this context, one of the changes introduced by Law No. 21,000 (the “Law”), that created the Commission, is the self-regulation of entities in the financial market ...
A key feature of ENSafrica’s fourth annual anti-bribery and corruption (“ABC”) survey was understanding whether organisations were familiar with the new ISO 37001 anti-bribery management standard (“ABMS”). The International Organization for Standardisation released the ABMS in October 2016 ...
We have previously reported on the amendments to the Harare Protocol that came into effect on 1 January 2017. One of these changes was that a mandatory request for search and examination must be made to the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization’s (“ARIPO’s”) office within three-years of the ARIPO filing date, along with payment of search and examination fees ...
By its own very high standards, Real Madrid is not having the greatest of soccer seasons, although it has, at least, triumphed in a recent domain name case.The decision in the case of Real Madrid Club de Futbol v Jose Delfim Mendosa de Vasconelos was handed down by panelist Eduardo Machado on 24 January 2018. The issue in the case was straightforward: an individual in Brazil registered the domain name www.realmadrid.com.br ...
