A few years ago artificial intelligence was a concept applied to nothing else but science fiction films, nowadays, it has become a reality for many companies and industries in the development of their commercial, corporate and industrial activities. Before we start to understand the strengths or weaknesses of artificial intelligence and its perspective from the right of intellectual property, it is considered convenient to conceptualize it ...
For businesses who care about their brands, Pofma may be not be such a bad idea after all.Beyond Meat Inc. makes cows happy and cardiologists sad. Its Beyond Burger uses no meat and has no cholesterol, and contains less fat, fewer calories and more protein than a typical burger ...
The Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2018 (FTRA), which was enacted on May 25, 2018, imposed a mandatory requirement on land developers to register with the Compliance Commission (the Commission) ...
At the end of March, UK Visas and Immigration closed both the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) routes, replacing them with two new visa categories, the ‘Start-up’ and the ‘Innovator’, which are contained within a new Appendix W of the Immigration Rules ...
Dismissals for misconduct are required to be for a fair reason and in accordance with a fair procedure. A fair procedure entails that disciplinary action be taken within a reasonable period of time. In the recent decision inStokwe v Member of the Executive Council: Department of Education, the South African Constitutional Court highlighted this procedural requirement that disciplinary action must be taken within a reasonable period of time ...
Uganda has taken a bold and long overdue step to revamp its 24-year old environmental law, the National Environment Act (Cap. 153) (the “NEA”). An amendment was necessary given the massive infrastructure projects in the energy sector, the planned infrastructure of a refinery and pipelines in the oil and gas space, the imminent production of oil, increasing urbanisation and the consequent pressures on land, and climate change ...
Most employers are familiar with the principle of “no work, no pay” in the context of strike action, but what about the concept of “work, pay, extra pay”? Can employers incentivise or reward non-striking employees who pick up the slack? This question was recently considered by the Labour Court inNational Union of Mineworkers obo Members v Cullinan Diamond Mine A Division of Petra Diamond (Pty) Ltd ...
Zodwa Ntuli, Commissioner of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (“B-BBEE”) Commission, indicated earlier this week that the commission has declared that the vast majority of transactions involving broad-based trusts are not compliant with the law and do not constitute genuine and effective Black ownership ...
An amendment to the Non-Citizen (Employment Restrictions) Exemptions Regulations, published through GN 55 of 2019, removed foreign spouses of Mauritian citizens from the category of non-citizens who were exempted from the requirement of a work permit for working in Mauritius. All foreign spouses of Mauritian citizens were therefore under an obligation to hold a valid work permit to be entitled to work lawfully in Mauritius ...
There was a highly unusual trade mark opposition matter in the USA recently. The case of In re Coscentra B.Vinvolved a comparison of two perfume bottles in the shape of a male torso. A company applied to register a male torso-shaped perfume bottle as a trade mark for perfumery. The application was refused on the basis of an existing trade mark registration for a male torso-shaped perfume bottle covering perfumery ...
Donald Trump comes up in our articles from time to time, as does the issue of bad faith. Both come up in this one. In a recent case in the UK, a company called Trump International, which is owned by a German by the name of Michael Gleissner, filed applications to register the trade mark Trump TV in the communications and entertainment categories (classes 38 and 41). The US President, via a rights management company, opposed these applications ...
We have written before about the case concerning the look-a-like Range Rover Evoque on sale in China for a fraction of the price of the real thing. In this case, Jaguar Land Rover ("JLR") sued the makers of the copycat Land Wind X for copyright infringement. JLR have now won, with the court finding that five features of the vehicle were copied and that damages should be paid. According to one report, other car manufacturers are now considering similar actions ...
In an increasingly global world, an organisation’s ability to recruit and retain international talent plays an ever important and potentially business critical role. In the UK, the only way in which employers can directly employ many of these talented individuals is through obtaining a sponsor licence from the Home Office ...
The Brexit referendum vote and its potential impact on free movement has already resulted in many businesses struggling to meet their labour needs; the number of EU migrants has declined markedly at a time when Scotland and the UK is enjoying record levels of employment. As a consequence, immigration has risen to the top of many organisations’ agendas to ensure they can recruit and retain the talent they need to grow their businesses and remain competitive ...
UAE Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations (AML Law) came into force at the end of October 2018 ...
The incorporation of the Law on Security Interests in El Salvador has the objective to create a registry for security interests, that is to say, the inscription of the security interests’ creation, modification, extension, termination and execution, as well as the publicity of these instruments. The Commercial Value that some brands have, plays a very important role and represents, for some entrepreneurs, a mechanism which enables them to access credits ...
On the heels of the DOJ Criminal Division’s revisions to itsCorporate Enforcement Policyto encourage cooperation, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch has issued its owncooperation guidelinesthat identify a non-exhaustive list of types of cooperation that may entitle entities or individuals to cooperation credit ...
When the Supreme Court accepted the cert petition to resolve a Circuit split regarding the False Claims Act’s statute of limitations when the government does not intervene, it created thepotential that the Court would extend the limitations periodfor private relators’ FCA actions. That is exactly what happened ...
Patents and technology companies are often intertwined. The story of the startup company patenting its groundbreaking technology is a well-known one. We see this often on the television show "Shark Tank," as investors such as Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner routinely ask whether the founders of a potential investment opportunity have filed for patent protection ...
The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Chief Executive, Andrea Coscelli raised concerns in April at “seeing a lot of evidence of anti-competitive conduct in the construction industry”, adding the CMA had “already taken a number of cases in this sector…”. Recent enforcement action from the CMA, outlined below, suggests regulatory intervention is only likely to increase ...
The IRS recently issued a new version of its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System ("EPCRS") that gives sponsors of tax-qualified retirement plans additional options for self-correcting plan failures. The new EPCRS allows plan sponsors to use the Self-Correction Program ("SCP") in several circumstances, rather than requiring a Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP) filing with the IRS and payment of the applicable user fee ...
On April 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division issued updated guidance to prosecutors for assessing corporate compliance programs. The new “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (Updated Guidance) replaces the February 2017 Guidance (Prior Guidance) ...
The Scottish Government, SEPA and industry have identified significant opportunities for the growth of the finfish aquaculture sector in Scotland. This expansion is an express policy objective of the Scottish Government, and was confirmed through the National Marine Plan published in 2015. Nevertheless, whilst there has been some growth in the sector since the plan’s publication, the sector has yet to realise its full potential ...
The Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued an updated guidance document on theEvaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. The new document, which significantly expands on the prior version issued in early 2017, largely follows the structure of its predecessor but provides much more detail than ever before. Indeed the new version is more than double the length of the prior version ...
This article addresses potential issues and concerns, which may arise between General Contractors (“General”), Subcontractors (the “Sub”) and their insurers when claims by outside parties (also known as third-parties) may arise. This is a broad area of law, which varies from state to state ...
