Karanovic & Nikolic is pleased to announce that Rastko Petakovic has been elected as Managing Partner. Rastko takes over the firm's leading position from Dejan Nikolic who served as Managing Partner until 2016.Rastko's dedication and energy was evident from the beginning of his career when he joined the firm as a legal trainee back in 2005 ...
In the post-recession economy, investment managers are looking for increased flexibility and ways to maximise investor returns by minimising set up costs, government fees and other related functionary and advisory costs. That is why many are now “Brexiting” to the British Virgin Islands. For years, the Cayman Islands has held the title of the world’s largest offshore fund domicile. Being the most well-known, it was the safe choice for investment managers ...
(Our crystal balls, that is.) "If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me … "- William Shakespeare (MacBeth) Happy New Year! 2016 was nothing if not earth-shaking in terms of unexpected developments. The – once unthinkable – departure of Britain from the European Union, was voted in by a legislature feeling increasingly un-homed in its own country ...
Data can be one of a business’s most valuable assets. Market players such as Facebook, Uber, Airbnb and Twitter were built almost entirely on data. Because of the increase in data tracking techniques, countries, companies, and individuals are more and more concerned with how their data – private or professional – is being collected, stored, processed, and transferred ...
Han Kun's 12th Edition 2015 Newsletter provides legal updates and analysis on: illegal pharmaceutical and medical device advertising under the new advertising law, a large wave of income tax incentives coming, and pros and cons of drug price renegotiation. To read the entire newsletter, click here ...
On 15 December 2016, Foxtel and a number of movie studios secured the first site blocking orders in Australia. The orders of Nicholas J of the Federal Court require the major Australian ISPs to block access to a number of infamous sources of illegal content, namely, The Pirate Bay, TorrentHound, IsoHunt, Torrentz and SolarMovie (Pirate Sites) ...
Effective January 1, 2017, new rules will govern the taxation of mutual fund corporations structured as ?switch funds?. Investors switching between funds will no longer be able to do so without incurring taxable capital gains. This article summarizes the impact of such changes. Description of "switch funds" under the current regime In Canada, most mutual funds are structured as trusts and some are structured as corporations (referred to as ?corporate class funds?) ...
We are often asked whether negotiating an IPD agreement takes longer than negotiating a traditional agreement, such as a construction manager at risk contract. The answer is probably “yes”, although that answer is incomplete.[1] A better answer, would be that negotiating and crafting the IPD agreement is an important step that increases the likelihood that a project will be successful ...
Clarifications of the Supreme court on application of general provisions of the Russian Civil Code on obligations and their performance Dear colleagues,On November 22, 2016 the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted the Ruling No. 54 "On application of general provisions of the Russian Civil Code on obligations and their performance", which contains clarifications of the Plenary Session related to the provisions of the general part of obligations law ...
Blockchain technology holds vast potential that can only be unleashed with regulatory backing. The potential, initially perceived only by a small circle of cryptography enthusiasts, is now recognised by central banks, governments, and major financial institutions.Smart contracts and decentralised autonomous organisations can change the legal system as we know it while generating new models for the economy ...
Poland’s National Appeal Chamber (KIO) issued an order on 5 September 2016 of great practical significance, applying new procurement rules on the permissibility of appeals by contractors interested in bidding for public contracts below the EU thresholds ...
2016 has been a busy year for IP on the African continent, with developments in Liberia, the Cayman Islands, South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, among others. Liberia: Intellectual Property Act and Swakopmund Protocol membership Liberia’s House of Representatives has approved and published the Intellectual Property Act, 2014 (the “new Act”), which repeals the Industrial Property Act of 2003. The regulations are currently being drafted ...
“The Trump Organization also earns income by licensing the Trump name to building developers around the world.” – BBC news site in an article entitled “What conflicts of interest could Donald Trump have?” Donald Trump has hogged the headlines for many months. So it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s even managed to make trade mark news ...
Judge Mervyn King’s name is synonymous with corporate governance in South Africa. 1 November 2016 saw the delivery of the fourth version of the famous King report on corporate governance, King IV. So, just what does this latest report mean for IP? Well, there’s apparently no mention of the term “intellectual property” in the report at all, so one might be inclined to answer that it means nothing ...
In a rare IP law decision in Namibia, the High Court has made it clear that it takes IP seriously, that English and South African IP decisions are very relevant, and that anyone alleging passing off will need to submit compelling evidence to establish that they have the necessary reputation ...
In an earlier inBrief dated 9 December 2014 we wrote about Federal Law No. 4/2012 on the regulation of competition (the “Competition Law”), which introduced the means by which the United Arab Emirates could regulate anti-competitive practices ...
In a previous newsflash, we highlighted the significant changes made to the broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) landscape in South Africa that were introduced by the new B-BBEE Regulations (the “Regulations”) issued by the Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”) on 6 June 2016 ...
Effective November 1st, new guidelines came into effect for patent applications before the European Patent Office (“EPO”). One significant change affects what the EPO will accept as evidence of transfer of ownership of a patent application, an assignment ...
Overview The new Bankruptcy Law of the UAE was enacted on September 20, 2016 as Decree-Law No. 9 of 2016. It was published in the Federal Official Gazette on September 29, 2016, giving it an effective date of December 31, 2016. The new Bankruptcy Law replaces and repeals the previous legislation on the subject, Book 5 of the Commercial Code, which was seldom used in light of its perceived shortcomings ...
On October 18th the 8th Annual IBA “Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia and CIS” Conference was held at Ararat Park Hyatt hotel in Moscow. A conference was presented by the IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee and supported by the IBA European Regional Forum. The Conference brought together experts in the field of economics and law from around the globe to discuss the latest emerging developments and hot topics in Russian and CIS M&A law ...
In July 2016, the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”) published, and invited public comment on, its Intellectual Property Consultative Framework (the “IPCF”). The IPCF reflects the DTI’s views on South Africa’s IP policy position in the form of a consultative instrument ...
Trade mark law may be contained in statutes, but judges are the ones who interpret the statutes. Judges are also the ones who eventually decide whether one trade mark is confusingly similar to another. It is these factors that make the “Question the Trade Mark Judges” event that recently took place at University College London so fascinating for anyone interested in trade marks ...
