The structure of Stock Companies consists of three organs: The General Meeting of Shareholders, as the supreme organ; the Board of Directors, as an administrative organ; and the Supervisor or Supervisors, as the supervision organ. The Board of Directors is a collegiate organ whose members are shareholders periodically elected by the General Meeting of Shareholders and which function is to perform all the acts of administration, representing the company before third parties ...
The first idea that we may conceive only by reading the title of the present article is: What signals may constitute a trademark?, the answer to this question is given by section 3 of the Law No. 380 “General Law on Trade Marks and Other Distinctive Signs”, published in The Gazette No. 70, of April 16 th 2001, which is the norm regulating this matter ...
Experts agree that good privacy begins with effective transparency. Transparency requires privacy notices that are easy to understand, facilitate comparison, and are actionable. A system of privacy notices also must be compliant with legal requirements that may be different from country to country, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Research on how people learn has helped us understand that easy-to read notices must be short, use plain language, and be in a common format ...
Summary: On 1 July 2005, the 7th amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen – “GWB”) entered into force. It implies major changes in German competition law. The objective of the amendment is to harmonize German with European competition law. In principle, cases having only a national scope will now be judged by similar provisions as cases that have a European dimension ...
Introduction A common question for clubs, events, and governing bodies at all levels of sport is what is the best legal structure to use - club or company? In this article we take a practical look at the pros and cons of the most likely options for your club or governing body. 1. Unincorporated Association A. What Is It? ● A group of individuals coming together to carry out a mutual activity, in common language a club ...
‘Spear Tackle’ Case When Brian O’Driscoll was lifted and dropped unceremoniously by All Blacks Keven Mealamu and Tana Umaga in the first Lions test the issue of spear tackling became a hotly debated topic. Spear tackles have been in the news before and a recent Australian case involving a spear tackle in a rugby league match has reignited the debate on when the courts should intervene regarding violence in sport ...
The term “joint and several” basis means that any of the parties involved could be sued for the full amount if a warranty claim arises. Management teams often come under pressure from equity investors to give warranties under an investment agreement on such a basis. Whether the team accepts it really depends on the bargaining position of the parties ...
Eurofood IFSC Limited: Opinion of Advocate General Jacobs, 27 September 2005, Case C-341-04 This significant opinion by Advocate General Jacobs clarifies provisions of the Insolvency Regulation (1346/2000) concerning a company’s centre of main interests (COMI) and the recognition of judgments in the courts of other EU Member States. While concerning Irish and Italian entities, the case has attracted interest across the EU ...
Rayan Restaurant Limited v Julies Company Restaurant Limited and others, High Court, 18 April 2005, reported at Firstlaw, reference FL10920 This case concerns an application for security for costs, which is an application made to court by a defendant. The defendant asks the court to order the plaintiff to lodge money into court, assurance that the plaintiff will be able to discharge at least some of its costs, if the defendant succeeds in the trial and is awarded its costs ...
Halton International Inc (Holding) SARL and another v Guernoy Limited [2005] EWHC 1968 In this case, the UK High Court held that where a voting agreement conferred absolute discretion on an agent shareholder as to how to raise finance for the company and vote the shares of the other shareholders, on a share issue to raise funding, the agent did not owe fiduciary duties to the other shareholders in relation to the selection of investors ...
Summary • Directors’ risks can be reduced and their worries alleviated through: - fulfilment of their duties of loyalty and diligence - taking certain specific precautions - indemnification commitments and insurance coverage • Statutes provide for indemnification powers and rights; however, such rights should be supplemented • Obtain detailed contractual indemnification commitments • Directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policies are not all the same and need to be review
Summary • Higher standards are imposed on directors • The key mission of a corporate director: to contribute his knowledge and skills with a view to the best interests of the corporation • Corporate governance is the best shield against directors’ liability (Supreme Court judgment in the Wise case) • Specific precautions may be taken by corporate directors to ensure that they both fulfil their key mission and simultaneously protect themselves against the risk of liability Backgro
You intend to take on the North-American market? The Province of Quebec is amongst the best place to do so because of the bilinguism (English and French), important business with the United States of America, tax credits, etc. Here are a few practical issues you should consider.The Corporate FormIn Canada, there are many legal forms under which a company can do business. The majority of business people choose an incorporation ...
I.INTRODUCTION Considerable attention has been given to recent decisions of the Courts regarding the duty of the Crown to consult and accommodate the interests of Aboriginal people in the context of asserted but unproven claims ...
At this moment it makes sense to publish a newsletter exclusively on issues related with the Media sector, not only due to the circumstance that it is a sector that has deserved front page coverage in the Media, particularly in relation to the acquisition movements verified (we need only recall the recent assignment of 49% of the equity of SIC, of 100% of the equity of Lusomundo Serviços or of the put option of a significant part of the equity of Media Capital) but also to the recent legislative
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOA”) raised the bar with regard to, among other things, corporate governance, internal controls and executive responsibility. While SOA’s provisions apply primarily to public companies, private companies should become familiar with SOA for two reasons: First, portions of SOA do, in fact, apply to private companies – such as whistleblower protection and document retention provisions ...
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v (i) Christopher McKinley Swan (ii) Vuchuru Sadhana Reddy (iii) Brian Christopher Ritchie (iv) Brian Samuel North (v) Ian Stewart, [2005] EWHC603(CH) In this English decision the High Court held that the directors of the parent company should have known that its subsidiary companies had been involved in cheque kiting (a process designed to generate fictitious funds through the transfer of cheques between the bank account of two groups of companies) a
New legislation implementing the EU Market Abuse Directive (Directive 2003/6/EC) came into effect in Ireland and a number of other EU Member States last July. The legislation has brought about important changes for all companies (Irish or foreign) whose shares are traded on the Official List of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE), as well as their directors, senior management and advisers ...
In the Matter of Flightlease Ireland Limited (In Voluntary Liquidation) and in the Matter of the Companies Acts 1963 to 2003 and in the Matter of an Application for Directions Pursuant to Section 280 of the Companies Act 1963, unreported High Court, 27 July 2005 Background: Flightlease Ireland Limited (Flightlease), a Swissair holding company, was declared insolvent, and an arrangement was put in place with Societe d’Explotiation OAM Air Liberte (Air Lib) whereby Air Lib’s holding company wou
This Newsletter approaches several issues, in a general and simple manner that the format requires, which we consider may be of interest to businessmen and companies, with the purpose to inform them or even to challenge them to new forms of organisation and development of their businesses ...
Imagine you are a seasoned trial lawyer at a large, downtown firm. Following a successful “Beauty Contest” at the New York headquarters of Telco Corporation—a FORTUNE 500 telecommunications company—you are given the opportunity to represent Telco in future commercial disputes. To prepare, you begin to research Telco Corporation so that you are familiar with its management, core business, financials, and other issues potentially affecting future litigation ...
Privacy notices are the windows to how organizations collect, use, share, and protect the information that pertains to individuals. As information processes have become more complex, privacy notices have become very long, mirroring the complexity. The effect has been to obscure the content that individuals need to know when making judgments about with whom they will do business. This has been an impediment to on-line commerce ...
Businesses in the UK are often willing to spend substantial sums of money on acquiring robust protection for their patents, trade marks and other intellectual property. Assets such as these help to set apart one business from its competitors. However, businesses have traditionally been less inclined to spend money on taking court action against competitors that infringe their intellectual property ...
At the end of June, the US entertainment industry won a long fought victory to help bring file swappers to heel ...
The European Parliament dealt a blow to programmers seeking clarity on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions last month when it rejected a draft European Directive on the subject (the "CII Directive") by an overwhelming majority ...
