According to last week's news reports, the President of the Provincial Government of Vojvodina, Igor Mirovic, met the Ambassador of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lazar Mirkic, in Belgrade on Thursday, 15 September, for the purpose of discussing Bosnian interest for Vojvodina's food products and the potential cooperation in the area of tourism ...
Media reports from Croatia are telling us that the Podravka food company has sold its Studenac mineral water bottling facilities to the Slovenian Radenska company, which is in turn owned by the Czech company Kofola – one of the European leaders in the field of producing and distributing non-alcoholic drinks. The acquisition contract has been reported as signed, with the full takeover expected to happen by the end of this year ...
The Law Decree No. 211 was amended on August 30th, 2016 by Law 20,945 (the “New Law“). The following are the main amendments: Amendments on collusionThe New Law amends the crime of collusion introducing the per se standard to punish hard core cartels, providing evidence of the existence of an agreement being sufficient, independently of the power of the parties in the market and the anti-competitive effects ...
ENSafrica’s 2016 Anti-Bribery and Corruption Survey Results Overview ENSafrica’s third annual anti-bribery and corruption (“ABC”) survey has revealed that 39% of respondents have experienced incidents of bribery or corruption in the last 24 months. The key question addressed in the survey was whether or not companies are putting proportionate measures in place to deal with the rising risks of bribery and corruption ...
The credit industry in South Africa is significant and lucrative. According to the National Credit Regulator’s Consumer Credit Market Report for the first quarter of 2016, South Africa’s total outstanding gross debtors’ book for consumers for the quarter ended March 2016 was a staggering R1.66-trillion, in respect of which unsecured credit accounted for R165.16-billion ...
An interesting news update has recently come up in the media, as the Serbian roads company "Putevi Srbije", and the Ministry of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure – together with the representatives of the relevant institutions in Romania – announced that a contract on implementing a cross border project of building the Belgrade-Timisoara highway is due to be signed in the next two weeks ...
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("CAFC") issued an important ruling today in the ongoing evolution of biosimilar product regulation. In the ruling today, the CAFC in Amgen Inc., Amgen Manufacturing Limited v. Apotex Inc., Apotex Corp. (CAFC Case No. 2016-1308) affirmed the district court ruling and held that the commercial-marketing provision in 42 U.S.C ...
The British Columbia Law Institute published on September 1, 2016 its Consultation Paper on Complex Stratas seeking public comments on proposed reforms to the Strata Property Act and its regulations concerning sections, types, and phases. The BCLI carries out scholarly research, writing and analysis for law reform, collaborating with government and other entities, and providing materials and support for outreach and public information ...
There’s certainly been a great deal of litigation around the trade mark ClearVu in South Africa – passing-off proceedings before the High Court, an appeal from that judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal, and proceedings before the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”). Now there’s another judgment, one that deals with an opposition to a trade mark application for ClearVu ...
The Philippine chapter of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Patents 2017 was contributed by SyCipLaw partners Enrique T. Manuel and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan. Mr. Manuel heads the firm’s Intellectual Property department. The chapter includes information on patent enforcement, patent amendment, licensing, patent term extension, patent prosecution and opposition, border control measures, Antitrust Law and inequitable conduct, and current developments ...
A recent case has demonstrated the importance of inspecting the boundaries of a property before buying it. Solicitors will generally advise a client buying a property to carry out an inspection beforehand, to check that nothing unusual is revealed. Typical issues that might be spotted are boundaries that do not follow the Land Registry's title plan and gaps in a fence suggesting that third parties are using the property as a short cut ...
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") published an informational guide to help settlement professionals navigating the changes that are a part of the Know Before You Owe mortgage initiative. After months of preparation, the TRID Rule became effective last fall, with the promise to help consumers make informed decisions about mortgage choices. Since that time, the CFPB has issued multiple updates and tweaks to the rule and requirements ...
Maria Ostashenko, ALRUD Partner, and Ksenia Erokhina, Senior Attorney, contributed to Comparative legal Guide to Outsourcing 2016. Within collaboration with the publishing house ALRUD specialists have prepared the chapter devoted to outsourcing and its regulation in Russia. The chapter has comprehensiblequestion-answer format ...
The August 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Asia Edition includes a regional update by SyCipLaw partner Maria Teresa Mercado-Ferrer entitled “A Need to Clarify Powers of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Local Government Units Relative to Peza-Registered BPO Companies”. The regional update can be found on page 15.Read the full ALB August 2016 issue for free ...
News reports are informing us that Belgrade will gain another bridge over the Danube river in the near future – this one at the Ada Huja island and over three kilometres long. The basic purpose of this bridge will be to connect the Pančevo road with the Slanci road, according to the City officials. It is planned for the bridge to be built in four segments, as the initial documentation is expected to be finalised in early 2018 at the latest ...
Effective September 18, 2016, anyone wishing to obtain a general contractor licence will be required to first provide security of at least $40,000. The amount will be $20,000 for specialized contractors. Effective January 21, 2017, the Regulation to amend the Regulation respecting the professional qualification of contractors and owner-builders also amends the description of the work authorized for some contractors specialized in heating, ventilation and refrigeration ...
For far too long, Africa has been plagued by the demon of conflict minerals, which have played a key role in fuelling conflict and extensive human rights violations. The terrible scenes in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remain vivid in the mind. In the history of conflict minerals, diamonds occupy the highest spot. They are valuable, portable and easily tradeable ...
Pierre Denis, Étienne Brassard, Benjamin David Gross and Sibylle Ferreira, whose practices focus on business law, financing and aeronautics, contributed to the development of a Q&A guide entitled Aviation finance in Canada: overview and published in the first edition of Practical Law’s Aviation Finance Global Guide ...
Timeline 20 August 2013: The South African National Assembly passes the Protection of Personal Information Bill [B9D of 2009] (“the Bill”) to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy. 19 November 2013: The Bill is signed into law by President Jacob Zuma and gazetted as the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”) ...
The decision by the International Trademark Association (“INTA”) to host a major meeting in Cape Town – apparently the first INTA conference to take place on African soil – is highly significant. It certainly says a great deal about the continent's growing economic importance. The conference takes place on 1 – 2 September 2016 and it’s entitled “Building Africa with Brands” ...
