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
2009 Prediction: Further penetration of Software as a Service (SaaS) Australia will see a proliferation of businesses adopting SaaS in 2009. With no hardware, maintenance or upfront capital costs, SaaS will be seen as ideal for companies looking to control their costs in an uncertain economic environment. Some analysts predict that the global SaaS industry may be worth as much as A$10.7 billion during 2009 ...
From 2010 until 2013, approximately $1.4 trillion1 of commercial real estate loans will mature. Notably, it has been estimated that nearly 50 percent2 of the loans are under water and that a wave of defaults and bankruptcies may occur. Because many of the commercial real estate loans are secured by a single parcel of real estate, it is critical that lenders and debtors be aware of the rules governing Single Asset Real Estate (SARE) Chapter 11 cases ...
At the end of January, the 468-page judgement of BSkyB v EDS was published, nearly eighteen months after the court hearing closed. Many, varied and worrying predictions as to the potential impact of this judgement had been made, but ultimately the judgement is unlikely to lead to radical changes in the relationship between IT and other suppliers and their customers ...
Bigger fines predicted for organisations guilty of corporate manslaughter The long awaited definitive guidelines for sentencing organisations guilty of either corporate manslaughter or a health and safety breach which causes death have been published ...
The verdict has finally arrived in the long-running IT dispute between EDS and BSkyB, for which the trial ended over a year ago. With legal fees of around £70m and an anticipated damages award of £200m (against a contract reportedly worth only £48m), the case will change the landscape of supplying IT products and services forever. EDS supplied a customer relationship management system to BSkyB ...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is modifying the computer program it uses to calculate Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) in light of the recent decision in Wyeth v. Kappos, No. 2009-1120 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 7, 2010). In Wyeth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that the USPTO has been improperly calculating patent term adjustment under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b). The Federal Circuit’s decision will result in additional patent term for many U.S ...
In what may be a new opportunity for cybersquatters, the Colombian .CO registry will soon allow for registration of domain names ending in simply .CO. Such domain names may be a prime platform for social networking sites and brand owners. As the registry explains, the acronym .CO can be associated with terms that include company, corporation, commerce, communities, content, connect, communication, collaborate, and consumers ...
A costly mistake by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has highlighted the importance of careful drafting to ensure access to a software program’s source code. The source code is the line of code in which the software is written, in language intelligible to a suitably trained software developer. Through the use of a compiler, the source code is converted to object code which forms the software program ...
On October 7, 2009 the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading the draft of the Federal law on amending legislation regarding land plots ...
Introduction On 2 October the UK's Competition Commission re-iterated its recommendation to the Government and the devolved administrations that they should take the necessary steps to introduce a competition test in planning decisions involving large grocery developments ...
On October 18, 2009 the basic provisions of the Federal Law No. 205-FZ dated July 19, 2009 “On amending of several legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter – “the Law”) which provide for essential amendments to the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of the Russian Federation come into force ...
Whether you are a sceptic, a convert or a believer, there is undoubtedly compelling scientific evidence of global warming, and that climate change is upon us. Legislation enacted by both Westminster and Holyrood sets challenging targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades. The carbon footprint of buildings is responsible for around 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK ...
Introduction The term 'climate change' is now common parlance, but what role does green building play within the broader climate change picture? Well, emissions regulations post Kyoto are imminent and buildings are able to offer cost effective emissions cuts – there is therefore a possibility that the building sector may eventually be hit with emissions caps ...
The Quebec Court of Appeal has issued an important decision concerning the application of zoning by-laws to aeronautical activities. In Lacombe et al. v. Sacré-Coeur (Municipalité de), the Court was called upon to rule on a sensitive issue respecting the division of jurisdiction between the federal and provincial governments. More precisely, the Court had to decide whether a municipality could govern the location of aerodromes by determining the zones in which they can be located ...
AS HIGHLIGHTED BY QUÉBEC COURTS, SURETIES ARE KEY PLAYERS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. IN 2002, THE QUÉBEC COURT OF APPEAL ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR IMPORTANCE IN A DISPUTE BETWEEN A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY AND A SUPPLIER. THE COURT NOTED THAT THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY’S LOSSES HAD BEEN EXACERBATED BY THE WITHDRAWAL OF ITS SURETY FACILITY ...
More recently, the Québec Superior Court established that the active participation of a surety in the restructuring of a company under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) was critical to determining whether a surety’s obligations could be reduced under the terms of an arrangement .2 accordingly, in Charles-Auguste Fortier inc ...
The House of Lords has made it easier for claimants to show that they are "disabled" and thus protected under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 ("DDA"). Employees are only protected under the DDA if they can show that they are "disabled". This word has a specific legal meaning: "a person has a disability .. ...
A recent Court of Appeal case has cast doubt on the value of such 'non-waiver' clauses. When a party to a contract waives a breach of that contract by the other party, it voluntarily abandons its legal rights to enforce the contract, or to claim any remedy, in relation to that breach. A waiver must be clear, but may be oral or written. Importantly, a waiver need not be express, but can be inferred from a course of conduct ...
Auction sales can raise difficulties when determining whether the transaction is a transfer of a going concern (“TOGC”) as there are two possible situations at which the tax point occurs. If the deposit is being held as agent then the tax point is from the moment the auctioneer's hammer goes down ...
On 15 April 2009, the Law Society published an updated practice note on mortgage fraud ...
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recently issued proceedings against a franchisor and its director for allegedly engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, in breach of section 52 of the Trade Practices Act (TPA). Various breaches of the Franchising Code of Conduct (Code) have also been alleged ...
Service charges are going to be a major bone of contention between landlords and tenants during the recession, as landlords seek to maximise returns from property, and tenants seek to count every penny. This could lead to a mountain of litigation, all of it protracted, and all of it destined to sour landlord and tenant relations for many years to come ...
This is the second of a three-part report on “public private partnerships.” Also known as “PPP” or “P3” projects, there is an increasing amount of press regarding these projects, some of which is contradictory and some of which is just plain confusing. The purpose of this three-part report is to provide you with some useful information in identifying and analyzing P3 opportunities. The first part of the primer provided an introduction to the P3 concept ...
