There was a fascinating article on the late Wally Olins (brand guru and co-founder of the firm Wolff Olins) in The Economist recently. The piece brings home just how much Olins’s thinking has shaped trade mark law and practice over recent years. Here are just a few examples: ‘G.K. Chesterton got it half right: when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing. They believe in brands ...
On May 7, the Fourth Circuit held that the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 131 S. Ct. 2296 (2011), did not apply in the context of a criminal prosecution for a violation of Rule 10b-5. See Prousalis v. Moore, No. 13-6814, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8584 (May 7, 2014) ...
Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”), it is unlawful for companies to bribe or make corrupt payments to officials of foreign governments or of any “instrumentality” thereof. However, what entities are included as instrumentalities of a foreign government is not defined in the FCPA and there has been intense disagreement over the breadth of the term ...
On 24 March 2014, the Competition Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) issued its long-awaited decision in The Competition Commission and South African Breweries and Others. The original complaint against South African Breweries (“SAB”) and its Appointed Distributors” (“ADs") was lodged with the Competition Commission (the “Commission”) nearly ten years ago, referred to the Tribunal nearly seven years ago, and has been the subject of various interlocutory disputes ever since ...
A shareholder of a major public hotel corporation recently filed a derivative suit against several of the company’s officers and directors alleging they violated their fiduciary duties, wasted corporate assets, and were unjustly enriched in connection with three separate data breaches between 2008 and 2010 ...
Prompted by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision in National Association of Manufacturers, et al. v. SEC, et al. (D.C. Cir. April 14, 2014), which held a portion of the conflict minerals rule (the “Rule”) invalid on First Amendment grounds, the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued updated guidance on April 29, 2014 relating to upcoming Form SD filing obligations ...
Mexico’s Senate received on April 30, the first round of the long-awaited secondary legislation to implement the constitutional energy reform effective last December. This first legislative package includes 9 new laws and modifies 12 existing laws. We anticipate that the package will be discussed and voted on during the extraordinary legislative sessions by the end of June. Below we list some of the highlights ...
Even if the parties determine that a proposed transaction is not subject to the requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (the “HSR Act”),1 the parties should take note of the recent activities and current views of agency staff regarding investigations of non-reportable transactions. Almost 20 percent of merger investigations opened by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) between 2009 and 2013 related to non-reportable transactions ...
European Commission imposes fines of €302m on participants What does this mean for you? The decision The European Commission has imposed fines totalling just over €300 million on the participants in a cartel involving the supply of underground and submarine high voltage power cables for important high voltage power cable projects in the EEA (including large infrastructure and renewable energy projects such as offshore wind farms) ...
On April 22th, 2014, the Federal Electricity Commission announced an international public bid, which number is not yet assigned, for the construction of 5 gas pipelines. These five gas pipelines will have capacity, amongst all of them, for 5 thousand 650 million cubic feet per day, according to the following: The largest of the pipelines, which will go from El Encino in Chihuahua to La Laguna between Coahuila and Durango, shall be 423 kilometers in length and 1,500 million cubic feet per day ...
The movement of information across national borders drives today’s global economy. Cross-border data transfers allow businesses and consumers access to the best available technology and services, wherever those resources may be located around the world. The free-flow of data across borders benefits all industry sectors, from manufacturing to financial services, education, health care and beyond ...
Stories of trade marks becoming generic - which may have the result that trade mark registrations become vulnerable to cancellation - are rare. Yet there have been a number of examples recently. In March 2014, there was a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that dealt with a claim that a trade mark registration for Kornspitz should be cancelled because the word had become generic ...
The Industrial Property Bill that was passed on the 22nd August 2013 was accepted into Ugandan law on the 6th January 2014. This Bill brings about various changes in the law protecting inventions, creations and designs in Uganda, and is intended to support development in the private sector and promote private investment ...
Clients unfamiliar with patent prosecution are often surprised to learn that few patent applications receive a first-action allowance, or FAA. There are even rankings of law firms that receive the most FAAs each year. But what does an FAA signify? Is it a cause to celebrate, or to conduct a post-mortem? The answer is, of course, “it depends ...
The D.C. Circuit recently expanded the scope of the False Claims Act’s first-to-file defense. See United States ex rel. Shea v. Cellco Partnership, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 1294687 (D.C. Cir. April 11, 2014). The court concluded that this defense – which bars FCA suits based on facts related to a “pending action” – applies even after the first action is dismissed ...
Although a federal court recently ruled that the United States Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) has the authority to regulate data security practices, a clinical testing laboratory is arguing that the FTC’s regulatory authority does not extend to entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) ...
Launching a market inquiry into a certain, seemingly problematic sector of the South African economy is not a new modus operandi for the South African Competition Commission (the “SA Commission”). In the past the SA Commission has relied upon general powers found in the Competition Act, No. 89 of 1998 (as amended) (the “Competition Act”) to conduct a market inquiry into the retail banking sector (the “Banking Inquiry”) and the supermarket sector (the “Supermarket Inquiry”) ...
Beleaguered companies suffering from data breaches got more bad news when a federal judge held that the United States Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) has the authority to regulate corporate cybersecurity practices ...
Beleaguered companies suffering from data breaches got more bad news when a federal judge held that the United States Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) has the authority to regulate corporate cybersecurity practices ...
With food and nutrition key issues for growing markets such as China, investment in Agribusiness is about supporting Asian partner objectives to grow "safe food" and "harvest protein", according to Adam Handley, President of the Australia China Business Council (WA) and a senior partner at law firm Minter Ellison ...
To strengthen the competitiveness of retail trading businesses carried out by modern stores and shopping centers, the Minister of Trade issued Regulation Number 70/M-DAG/PER/12/2013 on 12 December 2013 concerning Guidelines on Administrating and Fostering Traditional Markets, Shopping Centers, and Modern Shops (Reg. 70). Reg ...
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No. 38 of 2013 on Compensations for Land, Buildings, and Plants Located under High Voltage Air Channels (SUTT) and Extra High Voltage Air Channels and Free Spaces (SUTET) has been enforced as of 24 December 2013. The Regulation provides the procedures as well as formula for compensation for the owners of impacted land, buildings, and plant due the establishment of electricity infrastructure ...
On 29 July 2013, the Indonesian Minister of Trade (MOT) issued Regulation No. 35/M-DAG/PER/7/2013 on Affixing Retail Prices and Tariffs to Goods and Services (Reg. 35). The Regulation came into effect 6 months as of its enactment, i.e. on 29 January 2014. It is an implementing regulation of Law Number 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection. Two of its provisions will have a significant impact on businesses in Indonesia ...
An amendment to Law No. 30 of 2004 pertaining to Notary was issued on 15 January 2014 (Law No. 2 of 2014). The amendment came into force on its issuance date and various amended provisions were introduced, such us provisions on requirements for the appointment of a notary, confirmation of the Indonesian language as the formal language of a notarial deed or obligations of a notary and restriction on double positions. A number of interesting points were also addressed ...
The Minister of Trade has promulgated Regulation No 04/M-DAG/PER/1/2014 on 11 January 2014 which lists: 1 - 186 refined and processed mining products which are restricted to be exported (Attachment I of the regulation), such as metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals and rocks (including silver, gold and copper which contain certain levels of certain mineral elements) ...
