On 27 July 2018, the newly established Financial Sector Conduct Authority (“FSCA”) published the final Conduct Standard, No 1 of 2018, setting out the Criteria for Authorisation of OTC Derivatives Providers (“ODPs”). The Regulations under the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (the “FMA Regulations”) were promulgated in February of this year, effectively setting a deadline of 8 August 2018 for ODPs to apply for licences ...
The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that Christian Louboutin’s famous red sole does not consist solely of ashape that significantly increases the value of aproduct, and therefore can be registered as atrademark. This is an important victory for the fashion designer in the long-running battle concerning red-soled shoes ...
A gap in legal provisions might mean criminal liability for management board members for not filing financial statements on time. Amendments enacted earlier this year to the National Court Register Act have already caused some confusion and alot of trouble for companies whose management boards solely comprise foreigners ...
This month, courts have been active in several of the fiduciary breach cases involving 403(b) retirement plans at private universities, including USC, Brown, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Northwestern. We have been closely monitoring these and other lawsuits against fiduciaries of defined contribution plans, and the lessons to be gleaned for avoiding liability ...
California has enacted a sweeping tough new privacy law ...
Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice ("CJEU") has thrown out an appeal by Nestlé, which argued that it owns the shape of its famous treat KitKat. Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, has spent more than a decade fighting to trademark the four-fingered wafer shape. However, EJC's most recent ruling could bring an end to the snack's protected European status ...
The Croatian Parliament adopted the new Capital Markets Act in order to align the Croatian legislation with the EU acquis. The act adjusts the Croatian legislation with the cornerstone of EU's financial markets regulation - the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments repealing Directive 2004/39/EC and the Regulation on Markets in Financial Instruments, commonly referred to as MiFID II and MiFIR ...
Earlier this year, the government released a proposal paper: Extending Unfair Contract Terms Protections to Insurance Contracts outlining a model to extend unfair contract term (UCT) provisions to insurance contracts regulated under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (IC Act) for consultation. The consultation period closes on 27 July. A high level summary of the proposed model is below ...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA") provides new exclusion and deferral benefits for investors who purchase interests in qualified opportunity funds. Much like qualified small business stock ("QSBS") under IRC sections 1202 and 1045, new IRC section 1400Z-2 allows investors to defer and, in some cases, exclude gain on the sale of assets. However, gain can be deferred under IRC section 1400Z-2 only if invested in designated low-income communities ...
The Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) recently approved (on July 18, 2018), an amendment to the Israeli Restrictive Trade Practices Law, 5748-1988 (the “Law“) regarding parallel importing (the Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment 20 – Temporary Order), 5778-2018) (the “Amendment“) ...
The Danish government has now published its life science growth plan, which aims at making Denmark a leading life science nation in Europe. The growth plan is based on the recommendations submitted by the Growth Team for Life Science. Plesner has previously reported on the topic.1 The growth plan contains 36 initiatives in 6 key areas. One of the many initiatives is a pilot scheme for risk sharing in the drug reimbursement system ...
The Australian life sciences and biotech sector is likely to continue its resurgence over the next twelve months, with global trends driving strong M&A activity in life sciences and biotech M&A. We have identified 6 key themes for activity in this sector. Three Key Opportunities Demographic Trend According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, healthcare expenditure in Australia is growing faster than population growth and GDP growth ...
Resolution number 217/2018 was published in the Brazilian PTO’s Official Bulletin number 2470, and amends Resolution number 80/2013, which refers to the fast-track examination for patent applications related to products, pharmaceutical processes, equipment and materials related to public health, aiming to accelerate patent applications considered strategic to the Brazilian Public Healthcare System ...
On 1 December 2017, the Minister of Economic Development announced the release of the Competition Amendment Bill, 2017 (the “Competition Bill”) for public comment. Following the closure of the period for public comments in the first quarter of 2018, a revised Competition Bill (the “Revised Competition Bill”) was tabled before Parliament on 11 July 2018 ...
A new electronic registry system called Myanmar Companies Online (“MyCo”) is to be launched with the coming into force of the new Myanmar Companies Law 2017 (“MCL”) on the 1st of August. The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (“DICA”) is introducing MyCo with the purpose of streamlining company filings and making the process more transparent ...
South African tax resident individuals may consider, whether for estate planning purposes or otherwise, to advance funds to offshore trusts for investment abroad. The South African tax implications arising from the terms of the loan funding arrangement with the offshore trust should, however, also be taken into account ...
In 2016, South African National Treasury introduced an exemption from securities transfer tax (“STT”) for listed securities that are transferred outright (as opposed to pledged) as collateral, provided that such transfers adhere to a number of conditions that were outlined in the definition of a “collateral arrangement” in the Securities Transfer Tax Act, 2007 ...
The fast-changing landscape of competition law in AfricaAt the turn of the century, only a handful of Africa’s 54 nation states had operational competition legislation and enforcement. However, in line with developments in the rest of the world, many African countries have since enacted competition legislation and established working competition authorities ...
On 6 July 2018 the Government published a statement following on from Theresa May’s Cabinet meeting and Brexit debate at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country residence. The statement outlined the Cabinet’s collective stance and the next steps to be taken in respect of the Brexit negotiations. However, many critics have already called the Chequers statement a “compromise” position and argued that the statement seems to be advocating a “soft Brexit ...
2018 Summer Associate Taylor West contributed to this alert. On June 28, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to require the use of Inline Extensible Business Reporting Language (“Inline XBRL”) for operating company financial statement information and mutual fund risk/return summary information.1The amendments to the current XBRL requirement are effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. View the final rule ...
On July 11, 2018, then-U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb made a public statement about the agency’s efforts to advance the development of gene therapies.[1] Gottlieb pointed out that the FDA has approved three separate gene therapy products and the agency has issued six scientific guidance documents intended to serve as building blocks of a modern, comprehensive framework for how the FDA can advance the field of gene therapy ...
The Communications Decency Act (CDA)—the law Congress enacted in 1996 and confirmed this past year to shield online publishers from responsibility for the speech of others—gives internet platforms the right to publish the ideas and opinions of third-party users without being held liable for that content or being forced to remove it.[1] In the closely watched case ofHassell v ...
The release of Brand Finance South Africa 50 2018, a report on South Africa’s top brands (many of which are advised by ENSafrica’s IP team), gives all of us involved in brands and branding a chance to consider the commercial importance of our field.The report was produced by the company Brand Finance and mentions that over the past year, the value of South African brands grew by an impressive 8% to ZAR426-billion ...
Imagine listing this as one of a company’s major assets:“A sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, and the natural smell of a salted, wheat-based dough.” That’s something Hasbro can do, certainly now that the US Patent and Trademark Office has accepted the company’s trade mark application for the smell of its Play-Doh product ...
