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 ...
A new regime for prospectus and registration exemptions for private placements is now in effect in Quebec. It was developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators (“CSA”) and affects both private and public companies. In Quebec, the new regime has been implemented in the form of a regulation (“Regulation 45-106”), which has brought about significant changes to both prospectus and registration exemptions under the Securities Act (Quebec) (the “Act”) ...
Summary ‡ Information security “breaches” take many forms and occur in a wide variety of settings. However, contrary to recent press reports, they do not appear to be increasing. ‡ Research indicates that only a small percentage of breaches result in any harmful use of data. ‡ Account fraud and true identity fraud — the two identity-based frauds most feared by consumers and policy makers — are actually declining ...
The Ministry of Information Industry ("MII") promulgated the Measures for the Administration of the Filing for the Record of Non-Commercial Internet Information Services (the "Recordal Measures") on 8 February 2005. The Recordal Measures took effect on 20 March 2005. It provides detailed guidelines on recordal filings for non-commercial websites ...
Infiniteland Limited v Artisan Contracting [2005] EWCA Civ 758 This English case highlights some vital principles to be considered when drafting share purchase agreements, carrying out and reviewing due diligence and disclosing against warranties ...
Hidden Ireland Heritage Holidays Ltd. (t/a The Hidden Ireland Association) v Indigo Services Ltd. and Colclough and Gardner, Supreme Court, 7th June 2005 Facts: The plaintiff’s business consisted of booking country homes for its members. The second defendant, Colcough, acted as secretary to the plaintiff from 1986 to 1996. The plaintiff’s principal claim was that the second defendant diverted business to his own competing business with the assistance of the first defendant, Indigo Services ...
One of the functions of Companies House is to make information filed with it available to the public. Staff at Companies House do not question the validity or accuracy of the documents filed and this combined with the ability to freely obtain company details from Companies House can lead to potential fraudsters "stealing" or hijacking a company's identity. Such a fraud took place in 2004 when Companies House forms were, without the company in question's knowledge, lodged by X, a fraudster ...
In the Official Gazette of the Federation dated June 16, a Decree was published through which several provisions of the Industrial Property Law are amended and added. The object of these modifications is the issuance of a declaration of protection of well-known and famous trademarks in our country. 1 ...
GoodCorporation, the standards organisation for responsible business practice, today officially announced the launch of its service in Ireland. The first organisation of its kind to operate in Ireland, GoodCorporation audits companies for corporate social responsibility practices and provides benchmarking against which member companies can measure their performance ...
David Hughes v Seamus Duffy and Eugene Hanratty, 19 April 2005, High Court Facts: This case was taken under Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990, by the Official Liquidator of the Supreme Oil Company Limited. Section 150 provides for a prohibition or restriction of persons acting as company directors for a period of five years. The respondents sought to have the application dismissed or refused by reason of the delay in bringing the application ...
The Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Competition Act (the “Act”), including criminal provisions relating to conspiracies to lessen competition, price fixing, market allocation, bid rigging and resale price maintenance, and civil provisions relating to abuse of dominant position, as well as other practices that may lessen competition, such as tied selling, refusal to deal and exclusivity ...
Overview A recent B.C. court decision provides welcome news for trustees of multi-employer, defined benefit, negotiated cost pension plans. Under s. 59(3) of the Pension Benefits Standards Act (“PBSA”), trustees of these plans can reduce accrued benefits to meet solvency requirements, and have used this power at various times in the last 12 years. But this power had never been judicially tested. In Neville v ...
Judgment of the European Court of Justice in Tetra Laval BV v. European Commission (Case C-12/03 P) of 15 February 2005 In its judgment of 15 February 2005 in case Tetra Laval BV v. European Commission, the European Court of Justice (hereinafter the “ECJ”) upheld and confirmed conclusions reached by the Court of First Instance (hereinafter the “CFI”) in its judgment of 25 October 2002 ...
The judgment of the European Court of Justice in European Commission v. max.mobil Telekommunikation Service (C-141/02 P) of 22 February 2005 The plaintiff was an Austrian mobile operator contesting the level of regulatory fees it was required to pay. Specifically, as the claimant indicated, it was subject to fees similar to those applicable to a competing mobile operator owned by the Austrian state ...
Unlimited Liability Corporations Lawson Lundell LLP is committed to excellence in business law. In fulfilling this commitment, we ensure that we are aware of changes in the legal environment and are proactive in identifying opportunities for our clients to benefit from such changes. The recent introduction of legislation in Alberta to allow the creation of unlimited liability corporations (¡§ULCs¡¨) presents such an opportunity. Enclosed is a brief summary of ULCs and their uses ...
As a director you have a duty to act honestly, in good faith and in the best interests of the company. This means you must take proper care of the company's assets and ensure that you don't profit from your position. To this end, when purchasing property from the company, the purchase price should reflect the current market value ...
What is Licensing?Globalization and the opening of international markets generate an increase in trade on a world-wide basis and greater competition between businesses. It has become increasingly difficult for companies to follow the traditional process of developing, manufacturing and distributing products themselves.Licensing is a simple and different way of selling one’s products ...
The Director of Corporate Enforcement is targeting company directors who abandon insolvent companies and leave them to be involuntarily struck off the Register as an alternative to a formal liquidation. The Director has indicated that he will take proceedings under Section 160 of the Companies Act, 1990 to secure disqualification orders against such directors in appropriate cases. He is getting support for this in the High Court ...
Amendments to several provisions of the Mexican Mining Law (the “Law”) were recently passed by the Mexican Congress and published in the Federal Official Gazette on April 28, 2005. The amendments to the Law can be summarized as follows: a) A new governmental body called the “Mexican Geological Service” was created in lieu of the previous Mineral Resources Council ...
In the majority of countries, the rights obtained over a trademark are created by its use and/or its registration. Mexican law follows a mixed or exception system. In effect, the right to the exclusive use of a trademark is obtained by means of its registration, which protects certain products or services (the principle of specificity of products or services); however, its use also produces legal effects before and after the registration ...
Under the current law, for an organisation to be liable for a fatality the 'identification' principle must apply. This first requires an individual to be personally guilty of the wrongdoing. This individual must then be identified as the "controlling mind" of the company. There are several problems with the current system. It is often impossible to identify the "controlling mind" behind the decision which results in the death ...
Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and Parmalat: names associated with tales of corruption, mismanagement and financial irregularity. But these names are now also synonymous with something else: a raft of reforms to company regulation worldwide. Two such reforms being felt in the UK are the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, and the FTSE Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Index Series ...
On April 29, 2005, the Court of Appeal rendered a judgment in Pharmascience Inc. v. Option Consommateurs et Piro1 on the constitutionality of the amendments made to the Code of Civil Procedure on January 1, 2003 regarding authorizations to institute class actions. Contrary to the arguments of the appealing pharmaceutical companies, the Court of Appeal held that the amendments are constitutional and do not violate the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in any way ...
