We have reported on the demise of the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) in previous articles, but there’s now a new advertising sheriff in town, the Advertising Regulatory Board (“ARB”), a body whose strapline is “Consumer protection through responsible advertising”. Gail Schimmel is the CEO of this new body ...
Some brands simply seem to play a major role in our lives – Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix. These are brands that for many of us have become something of an ever present. One brand that surely belongs on that list is Amazon, one of the most important, influential and high-profile brands in the world. Brand Finance recently declared Amazon to be the world’s most valuable brand, valuing it at USD 50 billion. So, it makes sense to keep abreast of what is going on there ...
South Africa’s East Coast Radio listeners recently got a great beginners’ class in trade mark law. It would be a shame if all the people who missed the broadcast lost out.The discussion dealt with a dispute involving the fast-food chain Chicken Licken and a small Durban vegan restaurant called Oh My Soul. It featured an interview with the couple who own the restuarant, Tallulah and Richard Duffin, as well as the attorney acting for Chicken Licken ...
Uganda has enacted the Investment Code Act, 2019 (the “Code”). The previous Code was enacted in 1991 and was long overdue for amendment given the changes in approach to attracting investment and the glaring weaknesses in the old Code. The new Code strengthens the Uganda Investment Authority (the “Authority”), establishing it as a one-stop investment centre, and also provides for the financing and auditing of the Authority ...
AFRICA: African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement developments Botswana and Zambia signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (“ACFTA”) on 10 February 2019 at the 32nd summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, whereas the Ethiopian Council of Ministers approved the ACFTA on 2 February 2019 and the Parliament of Senegal on 23 January 2019 ...
In the listed sector, shareholders may be presented with various elections to be made as regards the nature of distributions made by companies in which equity investments are held. Shareholders can therefore be faced with an election to receive payment of a cash dividend, or in lieu thereof, to receive capitalisation shares from the underlying company or to partake in a dividend reinvestment plan ...
Sections 113 and 115 of the Companies Act, 2008 provide for an automatic statutory merger of two companies. The transfer occurs by way of operation of law, and barring any express prohibition to the contrary in a contractual arrangement, no third party consent is generally required to implement the merger. This type of transaction may typically give effect to a desired corporate reorganisation, in terms of which an existing company is liquidated, wound up and/or deregistered ...
The reportable arrangement provisions were established by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) with the objective of obtaining information on certain types of transactions. The circumstances under which a person should report an “arrangement” to SARS, as defined in section 34 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (the “TAA”), are contained in sections 34 to 39 of the TAA ...
With the enactment of Law No. 81 on Protection of Personal Data, the Republic of Panama aims to establish the principles, rights, obligations and procedures that regulate the protection of personal data, also considering their interrelation with private life and other rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens, by natural or legal persons, public or private law, lucrative or not, that process personal data in the terms provided in the Law ...
The law governing companies globally, and in India, recognises a company to be a personality, distinct from its shareholders. In the celebrated case of Salomon v Salomon & Co. Ltd[1]., Lord Halsbury LC, had stated:“[A] company must be treated like any other independent person with its rights and liabilities [legally] appropriate to itself … whatever may have been the ideas or schemes of those who brought it into existence.”1 ...
The Regional Labor Court (LAG) of Baden-Württemberg, in its ruling of December 20, 2018 (Ref. 17 Sat 11/18), granted an employee a comprehensive right to information against his employer with regard to all personal data collected about his person. The right to information was explicitly confirmed in relation to personal data resulting from internal investigations and data from potential whistleblowers ...
Companies will need to take appropriate steps in the future to protect their secrets. The new law on the protection of trade secrets places greater demands on the sensitivity of secrets to this extent. Whistleblowers can also reveal trade secrets with impunity - one more reason to set up a whistleblower hotline. Reverse engineering will be a permissible way of acquiring a trade secret in the future ...
Although it is included in Indonesia’s annual national legislation program(Program Legislasi Nasional/Prolegnas)so far, the draft new Indonesian Competition Law which will replace Law No. 5 of 1999 on The Prohibition against Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition (the “Competition Law”), has not been passed ...
As seen in Bank Director A bank’s board of directors must answer to a variety of constituencies, including shareholders, regulatory agencies, customers and employees. At times those constituencies may have competing interests or priorities. Other times, what may appear to be competing interests are actually variations of aligned interests ...
Are the two trade marks confusingly similar? It’s the question that’s most commonly asked in trade mark law. The issue of confusion can arise in the context of registration: should the trade mark be registered in the face of the earlier trade mark? It can also arise in the context of use: does the trade mark that’s being used infringe the registered trade mark? The two cases that we will consider here both involve registration ...
TheBig Maccase has enjoyed considerable publicity – many publications have reported on it, includingWorld IP Review. The decision shines a spotlight on some important aspects of trade mark law. In this case, an Irish company called Supermac’s applied for the cancellation of the EU trade mark registration for Big Mac (belonging to McDonald’s) on the basis of non-use ...
The much awaited revised new regulations governing who qualifies for the FLSA white collar exemption has finally been revealed by the Department of Labor. It did so on March 8 by publishing anNPRM(“Notice of Proposed Rule Making”). In December of 2016, a Texas federal court entered a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of new regulations which would have dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempting most white collar employees from overtime ...
The most important corporate tax measures concern the reduction of the maximum corporate income tax (“CIT”) rate and the introduction of the option provided by the anti-tax avoidance directive (“ATAD”)[1]. This allows for the application of the interest limitation rules at the level of a fiscal unity: For the time being CIT is levied at a rate of (i) 15% in case the net profits do notexceed EUR 25,000 and (ii) 18% in case the net profits exceed EUR 30,000 ...
On January 19, 2019, federal Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the Northern District of California denied the Government’s application for a search warrant that sought: “all digital devices” present at a California residence; (Order at 3), and “any individual present at the time of the search to press a finger (including thumb) or utilize other biometric features…for the purposes of unlocking the digital devices found in order to permit a search of
In this context, the judgements provide useful guidance on the concepts of abuse and beneficial ownership. Abuse concept According to the CJEU, it is settled case-law that there is, in EU law, a general legal principle that EU law cannot be relied on for abusive or fraudulent ends ...
Goal Is to Improve Accuracy and Reduce Potentially Invalid Registrations On February 14, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued aNotice of Proposed Rulemaking(“NPRM”) to require foreign domiciled trademark applicants and registrants to be represented by a licensed U.S. attorney at the PTO. The comment period on the NPRM is open until March 18, 2019 ...
At the end of the last year, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the “Supreme Court”) adopted the Ruling dated December 25, 2018 No ...
On 10 January 2019, the Indonesian Government enacted GovernmentRegulation No. 1 of 2019 on Export Proceeds from the Exploitation,Management, and/or Processing of Natural Resources (“GR 1/2019”) ...
