Most people know that Facebook is now Meta, following a well-publicised rebrand in 2021. According to an article that appeared in the publication IP Planet: “the main goal was for this name to fit better with future developments of the company, and in particular with the emergence of the metaverse as a new virtual world.” Image source: Unsplash We reported back in 2021 on the emergence of the Metaverse ...
In this article, we look at three IP-related matters that have come up recently. THREATS - BREACH OF CONFIDENCE / PRIVATE INFORMATION There’s been an interesting UK court decision dealing with breach of confidence: Clearcourse Partnership and others v Jethwa (2022). In this case, a party involved in a business sale heard and used information that he was not supposed to hear ...
Provisur Technologies, Inc. v. Weber, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2021-1942, -1975 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 27, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit reviewed an IPR decision and addressed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s consideration of certain evidence submitted to supplement a prior art disclosure. The Court also found that the Board violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by failing to sufficiently explain its rationale concerning its obviousness determinations ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently filed fraud charges against the City of Rochester, New York (“City”), former City executives, and the City’s municipal advisor, reminding us of the importance of up-to-date, accurate disclosures when it comes to the financial condition of political subdivisions, as well as the risks of issuing debt using outdated financial statements ...
During the mini-Budget on 23 September 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a significant (and unexpected!) announcement that reforms previously made to the IR35 off payroll working regulations will be repealed from 6 April 2023. Quick recap Reforms were made to the IR35 regulations in both 2017 (for the public sector) and in 2021 (for the private sector) ...
With the COVID-19 Inquiry (“the Inquiry”) now open, and applications for Core Participant status for Modules 1 and 2 currently being assessed, potential applicants will need to consider how their participation in the Inquiry will be funded. Section 40 of the Inquiries Act 2005 provides that funding for legal representation can be awarded out of the Inquiry budget. As the Inquiry will be funded by the government this is, in effect, public funding ...
On September 30, 2022, Governor Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 2647 (Levine) (AB 2647), slightly modifying the Brown Act's requirements for disclosure of public records related to agenda items. The bill goes into effect on January 1, 2023 ...
Introduction: Lawyers as Stewards of a Noble Profession In the final scenes of the movie “A Few Good Men” – one of the great classics of legal cinema – under dramatic, but extremely risky cross-examination by Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise), Col. Nathan Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) admitted to directing the kind of “Code Red” discipline which led to the unintentional death of a Marine stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ...
The Supplement to MM2H — Premium Visa Programme (“PVIP”) Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, announced the launch of the “Premium Visa Programme” on 1 September 2022 ...
On 16 September 2022, Law 17/2022 came into effect, thereby transposing the ECN+ Directive into Portuguese law (the “Revised Competition Act”). The Revised Competition Act increases the Portuguese Competition Authority’s enforcement toolkit by adopting the following key measures: 1. Scope of 10% turnover cap on fines clarified; 2. Statute of limitations suspended during appeals of PCA decisions; Read the informative note on the PDF ...
On September 27th, 2022, Law No. 21,488 was enacted, incorporating new crimes in the Chilean Criminal Code sanctioning the theft of timber. The new regulation, in its first article, adds the "Paragraph IV ter. of the theft of timber" in the Chilean Criminal Code to grant a special regulation of these crimes. Thus, if the value of the timber obtained through the theft exceeds approximately USD 615.00, an accessory penalty will be applied consisting of a fine of USD 4,615.00 to USD 6,154.00 ...
The European Commission has opened a call for evidence until 3 October 2022 with regards to the “Consortia Block Exemption Regulation”. This block exemption allows liner shipping operators to cooperate in the provision of services. The block exemption will expire on 25 April 2024. The call for evidence is intended to assess how well the block exemption has functioned since it was last extended in 2020. The call for evidence may be accessed here : https://ec ...
In the CyberMonday event, from October 3 to 5 2022, will be fully in force the reforms to Law No. 19,496 on Consumer Rights Protection in the field of e-commerce, introduced mainly by the "Pro-Consumer" Law and the Electronic Commerce Regulation. The following are the main aspects and obligations to be taken into consideration for the event: Promotions, offers, contests and sweepstakes must disclose the terms and conditions governing them and their term of duration ...
On September 23, Kudun and Partners were invited by TrustLaw, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, to be the legal experts in their Legal Health Check Workshop. The core objective of the event was to raise awareness of how law firms, like Kudun and Partners, can work with TrustLaw to provide pro bono legal services to NGOs, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and social enterprises (SEs). Chai Lertvittayachaikul and Emi Rowse (Igusa), partners of Kudun and Partners, presented at the event ...
In July 2022, the European Commission launched a public consultation on its draft proposals for the future of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (‘MVBER’) regime. The proposals include (i) a draft Regulation prolonging the validity of the existing MVBER for five years and (ii) a draft Communication introducing targeted updates to the Supplementary Guidelines. Comments may be submitted by the 30 September 2022 ...
Kudun and Partners recently completed a pro bono project for Baan Dek Foundation on the implementation of the Personal Data Protection Act, B.E. 2562 (2019) or PDPA that went into full force on June 1, 2022. Baan Dek Foundation is a Thai-registered foundation with a mission to provide access to education, health and safety services for vulnerable children living in urban slums and construction site camps in Thailand ...
Bank Indonesia recently updated its regulation on domestic non-deliverable forward (DNDF) transactions. Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 24/7/PBI/2022 on Foreign Exchange Market Transactions (“BI Reg. 24/7/2022”) replaces the previous regulation on DNDF, BI Regulation No. 20/10/PBI/2018 (as amended). BI Reg. 24/7/2022 makes some noteworthy amendments on the DNDF terms and introduces new thresholds and provisions on DNDF transactions ...
The ever-growing industry of Peer-to-Peer Lending (“P2P Lending”) has driven the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan – “OJK”) to issue OJK Regulation No. 10/POJK.05/2022 on Technology-Based Collective Financing Services, which came into force on 4 July 2022. The regulation provides more detailed and extensive provisions to cater with the rapid development of the industry ...
After extensive discussions and multiple changes to the draft bill since 2016, the Indonesian House of Representatives passed the draft bill on Personal Data Protection on 20 September 2022 (“Personal Data Protection Law”). The Personal Data Protection Law will be the basis of the regulations on personal data protection and this advisory highlights the key provisions ...
