CONGRESS PASSES TRADEMARK MODERNIZATION ACT LEGISLATION In December 2020, the U.S. Congress took action that will have a significant effect on brand holders. At the end of the year, Congress passed the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) that, inter alia, provides additional tools to the USPTO to respond to the rise in improper behavior in trademark filings including filing fraudulent claims of use ...
It is not uncommon to find parents continuing to pay an allowance to their children into adulthood, and in some cases this support continues post-marriage and can include payment of school fees or other financial provision being paid on a regular basis ...
Over the last several years, banks of all sizes have successfully partnered with emerging fintech companies to offer innovative loan products to a broader range of customers. Under a typical form of this partnership, a fintech, which is subject to the policies of the partner bank, will market loan products, take and process loan applications, and will service those loans once they are funded ...
On January 7th 2021, the bankruptcy moratorium, which had been in effect since April last year, expired. The main conditions of the bankruptcy moratorium were described earlier in details: in newsletters “Moratorium on bankruptcy proceedings”and 'Russian bankruptcy moratorium extended until January, 2021” ...
Article PDFJust when businesses thought they had figured out their Proposition 65 compliance strategies, the State of California, through the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), has proposed a substantial change that will drastically limit the use of the short-form safe harbor warning first authorized in 2018 ...
David Hume, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, argued that we cannot be certain the sun will rise tomorrow. Over the past nine-months David Hume has never seemed more right. It has been a tough period, professionally and personally for people from all walks of life, and for businesses from nearly every sector. But, while there has been adversity, there have been many rays of sunlight and causes for optimism ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. The Covid pandemic has clearly had a significant impact on our society, the economy and everyday life, with numerous sectors having found life in lockdown incredibly challenging ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page ...
Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Programs (ACPs) have been adopted in many states to protect domestic violence victims’ addresses and other personal information from collection and disclosure. Financial services institutions are taking strides to protect the data of participants in ACPs, but the financial services industry also faces some of the most complex issues with ACP compliance ...
In the state of Ohio, a light-duty job offer is a strategic way to either bring an injured worker back to the workforce or bar temporary total compensation, should the injured worker reject a valid offer. Either way, it can aid employers in eliminating, minimizing, and/or stopping temporary total disability compensation from being paid in a claim ...
In July 2020, Florida changed its contractor licensing statute to make it easier for contractors who have been licensed in other states for at least 10 years to obtain a Florida contractor license without having to take a licensing exam. While Florida has not entered into any formal reciprocity agreements with other states, we do finally have guidance on exactly how to apply for a Florida contractor license using an existing license from another state ...
On 12 January 2021, David Mathias, Tim Willis, Sam Grange and Matthew Stimson from our Planning & Environmental team hosted a webinar to discuss the main changes introduced to the existing ‘Standard Method’ used for assessing housing need in England and Wales ...
BackgroundSection 466(1)(a) of the Companies Act 2016 (“CA 2016”) provides that a company is deemed unable to pay its debts if it is indebted in a sum exceeding an amount prescribed and neglects to pay the sums stipulated in the notice of demand within 21 days of being served with the said notice.Through the issuance of the Prescription of Amount of Indebtedness of Company published on 26 January 2017 (“2017 Threshold Order”), this amount was fixed at RM10,000 ...
BackgroundOn 23 October 2020, the Malaysian government gazetted the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Act 2020 (“Covid-19 Act”). This Act, as evident from its name, is meant to provide temporary measures to ease the impact of Covid-19 on various sectors and industries in Malaysia. Areas addressed by the Covid-19 Act include inability to perform contracts, insolvency and limitation periods ...
The outlook for the year ahead is uncertain with the effects of post-Brexit rules to contend with and COVID-19 continuing to restrict the way we live and work. We look at what the year may have in store for the construction industry. COVID-19 There is no doubt that the pandemic has caused challenges for the construction industry and is likely to have a significant impact into 2021 ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Home Working not the Panacea’. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. Home. Noun. Meaning: “The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.” Not any longer. Home is now also where many of us work ...
The year 2020 will have been difficult for the vast majority of industries, and in particular for the arts, entertainment and recreation industry. The video game industry, however, is growing in leaps and bounds. For example, Nintendo and PlayStation have each set record sales for their games released in 2020, including Animal Crossing:New Horizons and The Last of UsPart II. Over the past few decades, the number of video game players has never stopped increasing ...
Although the start of 2020 also shook up the M&A world, the market recovered especially in the second half of the year. At Van Doorne, the M&A specialists experienced this in the number of transactions: 32 of them. This puts the firm in 8th place in the Mergermarket Benelux League Table, based on the number of deals. In 2020, in Europe almost $850 billion was spent on a total of 6,658 transactions. This is an increase of 5.6% compared to 2019 ...
If parents cannot agree whether their children should be vaccinated, they can make an application under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 to ask a judge to determine the issue. In M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020], the mother objected to the parties' two children aged six-years-old and four-years-old being given routine childhood vaccines in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule ...
In Changfeng Shipping Holdings Limited v Sinoriches Enterprises Co., Limited HCCT 59/2019; [2020] HKCFI 2703, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance laid down the principles applicable to service out of the jurisdiction of examination orders on officers of corporate judgment debtors pursuant to Order 48 rule 1 and Order 11 rule 9(4) of the Rules of the High Court (Cap. 4A) (RHC) ...
The Court of Protection is a specialist Court, focussing solely on supporting vulnerable individuals. This past year has acutely highlighted the needs of those most vulnerable in our society and their dependency on others to help manage their affairs. The Court has had to adjust its practices in order to ensure that help and solutions are found for those lacking capacity with minimal delay ...
In an admiralty action, can an intervener, not being the proper defendant, apply to set aside a warrant of arrest of a vessel on non-traditional grounds. The traditional grounds of setting aside warrant of arrest are, inter alia: in excess or lack of jurisdiction ...
2020 was a year of unprecedented circumstances and change, and more change is coming in 2021—this time, in the form of significant modifications to the nationwide permitting program. On September 15, 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a notice of proposed rulemaking to reissue and modify nationwide permits (NWPs), ahead of the usual five-year reauthorization schedule for the current 2017 NWPs ...
New Sub-Decrees on Construction Permits, Conditions & Procedures on the Issuance, Suspension & Revocation of Certificate of Occupancy, and Conditions & Procedures on Construction Certification New Sub-Decree on Construction Permits Following adoption of the Law on Construction dated 2 November 2019 (“Construction Law”), the Royal Government of Cambodia issued new Sub-Decree No. 224 ANKr ...
On November 27, 2020, mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”) signed the Supplemental Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Supplemental Arrangement”) ...
