The Draft Report of the Competition Policy Review released yesterday aims to set the pathway for resuscitating productivity growth in Australia, shining a light on areas of the economy in need of reform. It focuses on what is needed to promote productivity enhancing choice, diversity and innovation and focussing on areas such as health, planning laws, power and road transport. The Draft Report recommends changes to key competition laws that apply to all Australian businesses ...
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has conducted India’s first dawn raid. The CCI raided offices of UK-based construction equipment maker JCB, earlier today, in connection with a case of abuse of a dominant position. The Indian Competition Act (Act) accords power to the Director General (DG) to conduct such raids after obtaining a warrant from the chief metropolitan magistrate ...
Two top officials of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division have spoken publicly in the last week about corporate compliance programs. Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for criminal enforcement entitled his remarks to the International Chamber of Commerce in New York as “Compliance is a Culture, Not Just a Policy ...
On August 15, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit entered a Memorandum Opinion in the Wortley v. Chrispus Venture Capital, LLC case (In re Global Energies, LLC, “Global”)1 unwinding a section 363 sale order entered in 2010 by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida based on a finding of bad faith in the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy case in 2010 ...
On September 3, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered an opinion vacating various orders of the United States Bankruptcy Court and District Court for the Southern District of Texas (the “Bankruptcy Court” and the “District Court”) in the bankruptcy cases of TMT Procurement Corporation and its affiliated debtors (the “Debtors”), including a final order approving the Debtors’ post-petition debtor in possession financing (the “DI
Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery recently applied the business judgment standard of review at the pleading stage to dismiss a complaint challenging a cash-out merger involving a controlling stockholder. This is one of the first decisions applying the Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp ...
The Texas Supreme Court denied a petition for review stemming from the Houston Court of Appeals’Barzoukas v. Found. Design, Ltd. decision.1 The case is significant because of its application of the economic loss rule (under Texas law) in the context of an owner-subcontractor dispute ...
On 5 August 2014, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia enacted the Law on amendments and additions to the Insolvency Law (“New Law”). The New Law came into force on 13 August 2014. It has been specified that insolvency proceedings that have not been completed on the day the New Law comes into force will be completed in accordance with the previous rules ...
On 5 August 2014, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia enacted a new Privatisation Law (“New Law”), which came into force on 13 August 2014. The New Law prescribes for the privatisation process to be completed before 31 December 2015. The four models of privatisation that have been prescribed include sale of capital, sale of assets, transfer of capital without compensation and strategic partnership. It also allows for the possibility to combine these models ...
The trade mark laws of the world are, by and large, fairly well harmonised, or at least well on their way to becoming so. Which makes perfect sense in an era where multinational companies operate in a global village – a multinational should ideally get the same protection for its brand in all the countries where it operates. It is for this reason that South African trade mark law offers the same sort of protection to trade mark owners that many other countries offer ...
A recent report in Fin24 entitled ‘MTN named SA and Africa’s strongest brand’ listed South Africa’s top 50 brands in terms of brand value. It was based on research done by the brand valuation company, BrandFinance. As the title suggests, MTN came out on top, followed by Sasol, Vodacom, Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank, FNB, Mediclinic, Investec and Woolworths. Of the top 50 brands, 16 are in the food and beverages sector, 13 in financial services, and five in telecoms ...
Launch of South African City Domain Name Extensions Three South African city domain names extensions have recently been launched, namely .Joburg, .Durban and .Capetown. It is very important for clients that own co.za domain names, or South African trade marks, to register the matching city domain name extensions. The launch of the city domain name extensions commenced with the Sunrise and land rush phases running concurrently ...
The standards for Section 11 liability for statements of opinion in registration statements is the subject of a split between the federal circuit courts. The Tenth Circuit joined the split in the recently issued opinion, MHC Mutual Conversion Fund v. Sandler O’Neill & Partners, et al. The Supreme Court is scheduled to resolve this split next term in the Omnicare1 case, which is currently being briefed before the high court ...
On June 10, 2014, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “PCAOB”) adopted Auditing Standard No. 18 (“Standard No. 18”), which amends and supplements existing auditing standards regarding related party transactions, significant unusual transactions and financial relationships and transactions with executive officers. Standard No. 18 also expands the required communications that an auditor must make to the audit committee related to these areas ...
On August 1, 2014, certain amendments to the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, 6 Del. C. §§ 18-101, et seq. (the “LLC Act”), the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act, 6 Del. C. §§ 17-101, et seq. (the “LP Act”), and the Delaware Revised Uniform Partnership Act, 6 Del. C. §§ 15-101, et seq. (the “GP Act”) became effective ...
Regulators around the world remain focused on the impact of cartels on business, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is no exception. In 2013 the ACCC received 27 approaches in relation to cartels, resulting in 13 in-depth investigations. International cooperation in this area is increasing, due significantly to the work of the International Competition Network, the global organisation of competition regulators ...
1. Introduction In July, 2014 the OECD Secretariat launched a report called “Assessment of Merger Control in Chile”. This report analyzes the Chilean merger control system, identifies its chief problems and makes recommendations in order to overcome such shortcomings. The main conclusion of the report is that the Chilean merger control regime “lacks transparency, legal certainty and predictability”1 ...
The global financial crisis, which originated in the United States, had a major impact on the world economy and the economic recovery prospects of developed countries. As the countries with the most active economic growth in the world, BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) face a great challenge. They need to adjust their development strategies when facing the new challenge in order to achieve rapid and sustainable economic development ...
The question of who actually owns a trade mark in an important one in South African law. That’s because the Trade Marks Act provides that a trade mark cannot be registered by a party who doesn’t have a bona fide (good faith) claim to ownership of that trade mark. It goes on to say that a trade mark cannot be registered if the application is made mala fide (in bad faith) ...
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 ...
It’s well known that product shapes can be registered as trade marks. The South African Trade Marks Act, for example, has a very wide definition of the term ‘mark’, and this includes words, colours, numbers, patterns, ornamentation and shape. Yet it’s also well known that product shape trade marks are difficult ...
