Member Articles

IT projects: It’s a team game 28 September 2010 IT projects have a knack of over-running for significant periods, requiring ‘out-of-scope’ changes half way through, and consequently going over budget. Although any project will develop and evolve over time, such problems can be minimised through sensible project management methods. It is not uncommon for IT projects to last several months, if not years, from conception to completion ...

Getting the Deal Through - e-Commerce 2011 Getting the Deal Through published a fully revised and updated seventh edition of e-Commerce, a volume in GTDT's series of annual reports published by Law Business Research. This  publication provides international analysis in key areas of law and policy for corporate counsel, cross-border legal practitioners and business people ...

Spotlight on Corporate Governance One of the impacts of the global financial crisis on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been an increased spotlight on corporate governance standards in the UAE. The Ministry of Economy published Ministerial Resolution No. 518 of 2009 (MR 518) which provides for enhanced corporate governance rules and discipline standards for UAE Public Joint Stock Companies (PJSC) ...

Social networks: Hype and its legal consequences published in: WirtschaftsBlatt,Author: Dr. Axel Anderl, LL.m., Mag. Martina Schmid Social networking platforms like Facebook, MySpace or XING are an increasing popularity. It has never been so easy to operate social networking ...

Dear Sirs, On August 2, 2010 the Federal Law “On the alterations to the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of the Russian Federation” (“The Law”) was published ...

On June 28, 2010, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision on Bilski v. Kappos regarding what inventions are eligible for patent protection. The decision affirms that business methods are patentable, although the specific business methods at the center of the case are not. While stating that no single test governs the issue, the Court approved of the use of the “machine-or-transformation test” that the Federal Circuit had distilled from earlier Supreme Court cases ...

Most patent applicants can now accelerate the examination of a select number of patent applications in exchange for abandoning an equal number of unexamined, pending applications, according to an announcement issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) on June 24, 2010 ...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) is seeking public comment on a proposed three-track patent examination initiative that would provide applicants with greater control over the speed at which their applications are examined. The proposed initiative aims to reduce overall pendency of patent applications by providing applicants with alternative timing systems for the examination of their patent applications ...

A new feature of the civil justice reform system came into effect on 1 January 2010, nine months into the revamp. Steven Yip and James Yeung report that the introduction of mediation, as prescribed by Practice Direction 31 ('PD 31'), is expected to have a profound impact on the way parties conduct cases ...

In 2010, the legal services industry—and for that matter almost every industry—faces a new landscape that requires not only a different way of thinking but also a different way of doing business to ensure short-term survival and longterm success ...

Shoosmiths - EnglandWhat is disclosure? It is the stage of a dispute when each party is required to disclose to the other party the documents relevant to the issues in dispute. It normally takes place after each party has set out its position in their statement of case ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears all U.S. patent infringement appeals, issued an order on April 26, 2010 requesting briefs from the parties in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson, and Co. (appeal no. 2008-1511) to consider en banc the standards by which courts should find “inequitable conduct ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears all U.S. patent infringement appeals, issued an order on April 26, 2010 requesting briefs from the parties in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson, and Co. (appeal no. 2008-1511) to consider en banc the standards by which courts should find “inequitable conduct ...

Just one day after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit indicated that it would consider the current state of the inequitable conduct doctrine en banc in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton Dickinson and Co., a split panel of the Federal Circuit issued a decision in the case of Avid Identification Systems, Inc. v. Crystal Import Corp. affirming a lower court’s finding of inequitable conduct ...

Website owners have had a legal duty to make their websites accessible to the disabled for more than a decade. With the new Equality Act 2010 reinforcing those duties later this year, now is a good time for website owners to remind themselves of their duties and prepare for the new Act ...

Legislative Developments In July 2009, new rules came into force in Italy concerning class actions brought by consumers and final users who are the victims of unfair trade practices or anti-competitive conduct. Under the new rules, collective damages actions may be brought either by individual class members or by associations empowered by them or committees of which they are members for claims based on breaches of competition law ...

Proposals to extend the scope of freedom of information in Scotland will, if accepted, expand an existing risk to the commercial confidentiality of companies bidding for public sector contracts ...

Dear Sirs, On March 11, 2010 the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev introduced in the State Duma the draft of Federal law No. 341071-5 “On alternative dispute resolution procedure by way of mediation (a mediation process)” ( “the Draft law”). It is to be applicable from January 1, 2011. View More