In a significant decision affecting Texas corporate law, the Texas Supreme Court decided on June 20th there is no common law claim for shareholder oppression in Texas; the court also set the standards and remedies available for oppression claims brought pursuant to the rehabilitative receiver statute in the Texas Business Organizations Code ...
On June 13, 2014, several amendments to both the General Law on Business Corporations (Ley General de Sociedades Comerciales) and the Commercial Code were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. The reform package is aimed at reducing the cost and time required for certain corporate formalities, and also includes legislation in the areas of corporate governance, minority rights and share transfers similar to the current regulations under the Securities Act ...
CONTENT Overview of the Proposed Rules Respecting Equity CrowdfundingTrademarks in the English Language on Pubilc Signs and Posters OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSED RULES RESPECTING EQUITY CROWDFUNDING Josianne Beaudry In 2013, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) launched a consultation on equity crowdfunding, as we already discussed it in this publication last fall ...
On 19 March 2014, the government issued Regulation No.22 of 2014 on Amendments to Government Regulation No.41 of 2014 on Tax on Motor Vehicles which are subject to Luxury Tax. The new regulation came into force 30 days after the date of its issuance. The amendments affect luxury goods sales tax (Pajak Penjualan Barang Mewah or PPnBM) for vehicles with certain specifications. Before the issuance of Regulation No. 22, the tariffs ranged from 10% to 75%. Under Regulation No ...
On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a petition to cancel six trademarks owned by the Washington Redskins football team. InAmanda Blackhorse, et al. v. Pro-Football, Inc., the TTAB, by a 2-1 vote, held cancellation of the trademarks was warranted “because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.” See opinion here ...
The Serbian Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Mandatory Social Security Contributions on 30 May 2014. The amendments primarily prescribe tax relief for the employment of new employees. The incentives will become applicable on 1 July 2014 and will also introduce new contribution rates for pensions, disability insurance and health insurance, but the overall rate for social security contributions will remain unchanged, i.e. 37.8% ...
The numbers have been crunched and we have a winner! The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia — known nationally as the “Rocket Docket” — had the fastest trial docket in the country in 2013. Once again. For the sixth year in a row. The median time interval to trial for the 12-month time period ending March 31, 2013, (the most recently released data) is 11.1 months. That’s 11 ...
As part of the June 4, 2014 Budget Speech, the Quebec Government announced an immediate 20% reduction in the rates of some business tax credits. The mining exploration tax incentives in Quebec did not escape this reduction. Flow-through share regimeThe flow-through share regime currently allows investors to deduct in the calculation of their income an amount equal to 100% of the subscription price ...
There was an interesting article in a publication called TBO (Trademarks and Brands Online) entitled Fluid Trademarks: Keeping Them Watertight. As the title suggests, it deals with fluid trade marks. But what exactly are they? ‘Fluid trade marks’ isn’t some obscure way of describing trade marks that are used for beverages. The term rather refers to trade marks that vary in use. The article says that ‘fluid trademarks are those presented in an unconventional way.. ...
The relationship between parody and IP rights comes up quite often. Just recently the Advocate General of Europe’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), handed down his opinion in the case of Deckmyn, a case which involves the allegedly parodic use by a Belgian political party of a comic in which there is copyright ...
The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe became a member of ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization) with effect from 19 May 2014, with the Harare Protocol entering into force on 19 August 2014. This brings the number of ARIPO Member States to 19 and the number of states party to the Harare Protocol to 18 ...
Many South African businesses are finding it necessary to become acquainted with Chinese trade mark law and practice. One reason for this is that China is a market that many SA companies want to access. This requires them to make sure that they can use their trade marks in China without infringing the rights of other companies. In other words, they need to do trade mark searching ...
Copyright protects a wide range of works. The first of the categories listed in the South African Copyright Act (“the Act”) is ‘literary works’. It is an unhelpful monitor, because literary merit does not come into it at all – the definition in the Act in fact uses the phrase ‘irrespective of literary quality’. The Act goes on to make it clear that works such as reports, tables and compilations are categorised under the term ‘literary works’ ...
Members of the Zimbabwe ruling party’s decision making body told Bloomberg in April 2014 that Zimbabwe is considering the reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar as it struggles to meet its monthly wage bill. In May Zimbabwe’s Treasury postponed the pay dates for its 230 000 public workers the second time in two consecutive months, after having awarded civil servants a 23% increase in April to honour a 2013 election promise made by President Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF ...
On June 9, 2014, Mr. Moshe Asher, the General Director of the Israeli Tax Authority, announced at the CPA Association Conference that the Israel Tax Authority (the "ITA") will be launching a new voluntary disclosure program enabling taxpayers to report their concealed capital in Israel and abroad (the "new campaign") ...
Many entities choose to incorporate in Delaware as a result of the abundance of case law on corporate matters and the willingness and ability of the Delaware legislature to adapt to changing times. The ATPdecision is a recent example of the Delaware courts and legislature in considering corporate governance changes in response to stockholder litigation.ATP DecisionIn ATP Tour, Inc. v. Deutscher Tennis Bund, No. 534, 2013 (Del ...
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that competitors may bring private suits alleging unfair competition under the Lanham Act based on misleading and deceptive food and beverage labels that are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), overruling a Ninth Circuit decision ...
This Need to Know Express is part of a series of newsletters which each answers one or several questions in a practical and concrete way. These bulletins have been or will be published over the next few weeks. In addition, a consolidated version of all the Need to Know Express newsletters published on this topic will be available upon request. These various newsletters, as well as others published on the subject of governance, are or will be available on our website (Lavery ...
Shepherd and Wedderburn is particularly pleased to welcome the introduction to the Scottish Parliament of a Bill that will allow businesses and individuals to create effective contracts and finalise agreements and other documents more speedily, having played a central role in its conception, and its content ...
On 29 May 2014, INTELEKTIV 2014, an international conference on intellectual property was held in Zagreb. The event gathered leading intellectual property experts from Croatia and Europe to discuss their challenges in dealing with the protection of IP rights in business. Public officers, customs officers, state attorneys and SEE enforcement protection officers assembled to create an open platform for open dialogue ...
CONTENTS Proposed General Anti-treaty Shopping Rule : Private Investment Funds Will Need to Play it SafeRegistration Requirements of Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund Managers in Canada : A Favourable Regulatory FrameworkBill 1 : New Requiremetns for Public Calls for Tenders LAVERY: A LEADER IN MONTREAL IN THE PRIVATE EQUITY, VENTURE CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INDUSTRYCreating and setting up private equity and venture capital funds are complex initiati
