In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court recently addressed the standard to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee in wage and hour disputes under California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) wage orders. In Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v ...
The Serbian Parliament adopted amendments to the Serbian Company Law (Law), and they were published in the official journal on the same date. This is the first overhaul of the Serbian Company Law since it was enacted back in 2011. Most of the amendments relate to the introduction of the concepts required for Serbia's accession to the EU (such as cross-border merger and European company forms) ...
The concepts of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) were first introduced to China in the late 1980's. Ever since the 1990s, with the rapid growth of China's economy and the uprecedented expansion of start-ups, investments, and mergers and acquisitions, China's PE/VC industry has maintained a strong momentum and the number of PE/VC firms has grown exponentially ...
With intellectual property (“IP”), the focus is often on protection (generally in the form of registration) and enforcement, which often takes the form of an infringement action. Yet, there is also always a great deal of transactional activity taking place in respect of IP assets. This activity tends to fly under the radar, but two recent deals have made the news. These deals are examples of two of the most common IP transactions: licences and sales ...
Celebrities have done a great deal to increase awareness of intellectual property (“IP”). The reason for this is simple: celebrities make significant use of IP and when they get into legal spats, their disputes make the news. The reason why celebrities are attracted to IP in the first place is equally simple: they know that they can use IP to significantly increase their wealth ...
Over the past few years, we’ve reported on a number of legal battles involving chocolate bars such as Kit Kat and Toblerone. These cases have dealt with the shape or appearance of chocolate bars. Another “food fight” has erupted in the UK, and this time it involves a speciality chocolate manufacturer called Hotel Chocolat and the retail chain Waitrose ...
Privacy is Dead - But we never wanted it anyway, muses Adrian Tan. Over the past few weeks, our inboxes were bombarded by emails about privacy. Companies wrote to us, in a state of panic, because of the General Data Protection Regulation. That is a new European Union law that recently came into force. Among the many things that the GDPR does is to regulate the export of personal data outside the EU ...
Introduction I have been asked to speak on the Base Erosion Profit Sharing of the OECD, or better know as BEPS. This is a new acronym that, similar to CRS and the harmful tax initiative program, is geared at a multilateral approach to the application of uniform tax rules and standards. Unlike the CRS and the harmful tax practices initiatives of the past, BEPS has a focus not necessarily on the private client, but on the multinational commercial organization ...
This article will focus on the experience in practice and the evolution of privatizations of state and socially owned companies in Serbia in the period of transition and will assess the boundaries of arbitrability of disputes that arise out of the termination of privatization agreements. The term arbitrability will be analysed from a broader perspective, as opposed to the traditional and commonly used meaning of this term - whether a certain dispute is suitable for arbitration ...
Following a tip, the Serbian Competition Commission (the "Commission") recently started investigating the business relationship between GR Sport and Polanik, a Polish company, concerning an alleged infringement of competition – the conclusion of a restrictive agreement which was not notified for prior exemption under the applicable legal framework ...
On May 9, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein released a new “Policy on Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties” (“Policy”) in an effort to ameliorate the unwarranted “piling on” of penalties by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and other law enforcement agencies outside of the DOJ. The Policy’s teeth come in the form of the new section 1-12.100 to the United States Attorney Manual, which requires U.S ...
“The framework agreement is an agreement whereby the contracting parties define and establish the main rules and conditions that will govern future agreements that will be concluded between them and that are called agreements “for the application” or “for the enforcement” of the framework agreement.” (High Court of Cassation and Justice Decision n0 ...
In the decision in Rustenburg Platinum Mine and SAEWA obo Meyer Bester and Others, the Constitutional Court dealt with the question of whether an employee referring to a colleague as a “swart man” (“black man”), within the facts set out below, constituted misconduct justifying dismissal.The adjacent large 4x4 vehiclesThe employee in this matter, Mr Bester, was employed by the Rustenburg Platinum Mine (the “employer”) ...
In the Loop: With the Hanson Bridgett Government Group We’ve been getting lots of questions from public agencies about the General Data Protection Regulation—known as GDPR. GDPR is a new European Union privacy law that governs the processing of personal data about people residing in Europe. It just went into effect on May 25 ...
The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Trade Marks 2018 Philippine Chapter Enrique T. Manuel and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan, SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan 1 Relevant Authorities and Legislation 1.1 What is the relevant trade mark authority in your jurisdiction? The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is therelevant trade mark authority. 1 ...
Not long after President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Department of Commerce launched an investigation that may lead to additional duties on imported vehicles and automotive parts. Effective, the Department will now examine whether imports of vehicles and auto parts threaten U.S. national security ...
Recent media reports have suggested that 100 per cent foreign ownership of companies in the UAE will now be permitted. The reports are based on a government press release regarding a UAE Federal Cabinet (Cabinet) meeting held on 20 May 2018. The press release states that the Cabinet announced changes in the system of foreign ownership in the UAE allowing global investors to own 100 per cent of companies by the end of the current year ...
In Praxair Distrib., Inc. v. Mallinckrodt Hosp. Prods. IP Ltd., 2016-2616, -2656, in a decision authored by Judge Lourie, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the printed matter doctrine is properly applied during claim construction and can include not just printed matter, but also mental steps ...
In a much anticipated opinion, the Supreme Court on Monday held that class action waivers in arbitration agreements are enforceable. In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court stated that “Congress has instructed in the Arbitration Act that arbitration agreements providing for individualized proceedings must be enforced, and neither the Arbitration Act’s saving clause nor the NLRA suggests otherwise ...
On May 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court issued its 5-4 decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285; Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, No. 16-300; and NLRB v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., No. 16-307 holding that an employer may require its employees to sign a dispute resolution arbitration agreement that includes an employee’s waiving the right to bring a claim on a class or collective action basis ...
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, resolving an issue on which several Courts of Appeals and various federal agencies and administrations had disagreed. At issue in Epic Systems (and two companion cases presenting the same issue: Ernst & Young LLP. v. Morris and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc ...
As Lord Sumption’s leading judgment of the Supreme Court inRock Advertising Limited v MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited[2018] UKSC 24 states, it is rare that modern litigation raises truly fundamental issues in the law of contract. This case, however, raisedtwosuch issues, although as a result of the Court’s decision on the first issue, it was not necessary to decide the “difficult” second issue ...
The approval of the long awaited Federal Law on Arbitration by the Federal National Council was announced earlier this year ...
Artificial intelligence has undergone significant developments in the last few years, particularly in respect of what is now known as deep learning.1 This method is the extension of the neural networks which have been used for a few years for machine learning. Deep learning, as any other form of machine learning, requires that the artificial intelligence system be placed before various situations in order to react to situations which are similar to previous experiences ...
