It is with great pleasure that we announce the promotion of Thitawan Thanasombatpaisarn and Kongwat Akaramanee to partners of Kudun and Partners. Thitawan, our new capital markets partner, and Kongwat, our new dispute resolution partner, have been valued members of our team for many years, and has consistently demonstrated exceptional legal acumen and a deep commitment to our clients ...
Grace Instrument Industries, LLC v. Chandler Instruments Company, LLC, Appeal No. 2021-2370 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 12, 2023) In an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s determination that one of a patent’s claim terms, “enlarged chamber,” is indefinite, and remanded for further proceedings ...
In the second part in this series, we take a look at the possible changes that could be made to improve the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) and the Agency Worker Regulations 2010. Working Time Regulations - 48-hour week The WTR derive from the EU Council’s Directive on working time (1993) and the Council Directive on the protection of young people (1994) ...
Cyber criminals, the twenty-first century equivalent to the highwaymen of yesteryear, don’t offer charities the stark alternative of “their money or their life”, but instead their money or their data, the lifeblood of many charities. Ransomware attacks present a critical risk of their services grinding to a halt for weeks if not months – even if data is restored - as well as swingeing fines for personal data breaches in multiple jurisdictions ...
It has been some time since there has been talk about bonfires in Parliament but the continued debate (albeit largely outside of the Chamber thus far) as to when we should finally say 'farewell' to 'retained' EU legislation is one that many of us are watching with interest. When originally introduced, the suggestion that some 4,000 pieces of legislation would essentially evaporate by the end of this year caused something veering between confusion, concern and, let's be honest, disbelief ...
Overview On 4 November 2022, the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia issued two new regulations, namely, Prakas 226 on the Formalities and Procedures of Inspection and Investigation under the Law on Competition (“Prakas 226”) and Prakas 227 on the Conditions and Procedures of Negotiated Settlement under the Law on Competition (“Prakas 227”) ...
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel recently released an advisory opinion[i] regarding Section 1461 of title 18 of the U.S. Code. In it, they write the “Comstock Act”[ii] does not prohibit the mailing of certain medications used to perform abortions where the sender does not believe the medications will be used unlawfully. This opinion comes in the wake of the U.S ...
On 21 December 2022 the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Stanford International Bank Ltd (in liquidation) v HSBC Bank PLC [2022] UKSC 34. Stanford International Bank’s (‘SIB’) appeal was ultimately struck out as it was determined that it did not suffer a recoverable loss. Background The original claim was brought by Antigua-based SIB in relation to several accounts it held with HSBC Bank PLC (‘HSBC’) in London between 2003 to 2009 ...
Determining the correct rate of rent in a 1954 Act renewal can be a sticky subject at the best of times, not least when a rent-free period is thrown into the mix. Section 34 of the Act allows the Court to determine the level of rent due under the new lease, taking into account comparable evidence and applying certain disregards. Whilst s ...
As the Covid-19 Inquiry reaches Module 2 of its timeline and it turns its attention to the political and administrative decisions made at the height of the pandemic, Shoosmiths looks at the history of public inquiries to reflect on their purpose and effectiveness in preventing future mistakes of the same kind. Reviewing previous public inquiries may inform us about the likely trajectory of the Covid-19 Inquiry ...
Ukraine is an EU candidate: Can we soon file patent applications for Ukraine at the European Patent Office? The European Council granted Ukraine EU candidate status on 23 June 2022. Will patents granted by the European Patent Office soon also apply in Ukraine? Not immediately, because on the one hand the candidate status legally creates neither rights nor obligations ...
It is a sad fact that the current economic crisis is causing many employers to consider cost saving measures like redundancies. But it can be difficult to know what amounts to a redundancy situation. We consider the legal definition and how it applies. What the law says Redundancy is a mechanism used by employers when a company needs to reduce the number of its employees. It is one of the five potentially fair reasons for which an employer can dismiss an employee ...
The UAE has introduced a new law on civil procedure (Federal Decree-Law 42/2022) which repeals Federal Law No. 11 of 1992 on civil procedure and its executive regulations issued under Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2018. The new law came into force on 2 January 2022 ...
In recent months we have seen a significant rise in industrial action across multiple sectors, including public transport; postal workers; nursing and ambulance staff; university employees; Border Force staff and civil servants. Strikes look set to continue into 2023; the British Medical Association is currently balloting junior doctors on potential strike action for March 2023 and disruption is also likely to hit schools in Scotland as teacher strikes are planned for January 2023 ...
In 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026 to increase the minimum wage for federal government contractors to $15 per hour. On November 23, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule implementing Executive Order 14026. The rule requires any federal contractor to pay employees a minimum hourly wage of $15 and overtime wages for work beyond 40 hours per week. This wage is subject to yearly increases determined by DOL ...
Dionex Softron GmbH v. Agilent Techs., Inc., Appeal No. 21-2372 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 6, 2023) This week’s Case of the Week, the only precedential patent opinion issued by the Federal Circuit this week, focused primarily on the corroboration requirement for relevant dates of invention. The Court held there was sufficient evidence of a reduction to practice as of a given date, based primarily on corroboration of multiple witnesses, notwithstanding limited documentary evidence ...
On July 9, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order requesting that agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), issue rules banning employers from entering non-compete agreements with employees. Following that request, on January 5, 2023, the FTC announced it is proposing sweeping new regulations that would bar employers from entering into or enforcing non-compete agreements with employees that prevent an employee from working with a competitor ...
The recent judgment issued by the Supreme Court of Bermuda in the case of In the Matter of the AB Settlement [2022] SC (Bda) 92 Civ provides very helpful authority on the question of whether trust restructurings under Bermuda statute constitute resettlements. The case concerned a substantial English law trust, referred to in the judgment as the AB Settlement ...
Whether a court must defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation of a statute has recently become a hot-button topic in a wide variety of legal circles ranging from political campaigns to cases heard before the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Ohio has now joined with its recent decision in TWISM Ents., L.L.C. v. State Bd ...
The Finnish Government has published a proposal for the temporary Windfall Tax Act in Finland, the draft of which was briefly discussed in our previous article on the subject. The proposed temporary windfall tax would be applicable to so-called windfall profits gained during tax year 2023 by companies operating in the electricity or the fossil fuel sector. The aim of the proposal is to tax said sectors' increased profits resulting from the current energy crisis ...
In the words of its own Attorney-General, Australia's privacy laws were “out of date and not fit-for-purpose”. After recent amendments, they now stand to contain one of the world’s toughest data breach penalty regimes. So, what has changed? Fines The Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022 (the “Bill”) received Royal Assent on 12 December 2022 ...
Levelling up the regional economies has many labels: the Northern Powerhouse, the Midlands Engine, the Golden Triangle and the Ox-Cam Arc. But have they delivered improved economic growth? Since Channel 4 announced its move to Leeds, media companies have flocked to the area. The government has also promised to deliver high-speed rail to northern cities, which would position the region as a global leader in transport innovation ...