The Seventh Circuit has revived a class action against Neiman Marcus for losses customers allegedly suffered as a result of a data breach involving payment card information. A federal district court had dismissed the claims, finding – consistent with federal courts around the country – that the plaintiffs lacked standing because they failed to allege they suffered concrete harm from the breach ...
It’s been widely reported that various luxury brand owners have brought legal proceedings in the USA against Alibaba, the Chinese online shopping giant that recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The claim is that Alibaba has knowingly made it possible for companies to sell counterfeit products on its platform ...
Following Cuba’s removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism on May 29, 2015, the United States and Cuba took an additional step towards normalizing relations by announcing the reopening of embassies after more than five decades of their closure. The announcement of an agreement to reopen embassies, which was made today, is the first step in converting each country’s present “Interests Section” into formal embassies ...
Is your business affected by counterfeiting? If so, you are not alone. A newly released study shows that almost all intellectual property dependent companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm 30 Index have been affected. Moreover, most expect that the problem will continue to grow. Better political support is required to stem this development, but companies already have several weapons available to use against the counterfeiters ...
In a decisive victory for the Plaintiffs in class actions against the three Canadian leading tobacco companies1, the Québec Superior Court ordered the Defendants to pay more than 15 billion dollars in moral damages2 and punitive damages. There were more than 253 hearing days3 and 16 years of proceedings. THE ACTIONS In February 2005, Justice Pierre Jasmin authorized two class actions against JTI-Macdonald (JTM), Imperial Tobacco (ITL) and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (RBH) ...
In Indonesia, domestic and international arbitration falls under the Arbitration Law (Law No. 30 of 1999). The Arbitration Law is not based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. Under the Arbitration Law, any award handed down outside the territory of Indonesia (e.g. in Singapore or London) is classifi ed as an international arbitration award ...
The Court of Appeal of Quebec has issued an important judgment pertaining to a franchisor’s implicit obligations towards its franchisees. In June 2012, the Superior Court of Quebec ordered Dunkin’ Donuts Brands Canada Ltd. (“Dunkin’ Donuts”) to pay an amount of $16.4M (plus interests and costs) to 21 of its franchisees in Quebec the sum of $16 ...
One of the central functions of a contract is to be able to enforce its obligations. Within the EU, under the new Recast Brussels Regulation (the Regulation), it is now easier, quicker and cheaper to enforce EU judgments within England and Wales. The Regulation applies to all proceedings instituted on or after 10 January 2015 within the EU. This article looks at the key changes introduced and key points to be aware of when seeking to enforce ...
On March 19, 2015, the competition regulator in India – the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”), passed an order rejecting charges that Suzuki Motorcycle India (“Suzuki”) had abused its dominant position in the market for manufacturing and sale of two-wheeler vehicles ...
On 10 January 2015, new EU rules on jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters came into effect as a result of the Brussels Regulation (recast) (Regulation (EU) 1215/2012) (the recast Regulation). Although the recast Regulation introduces several important changes to the Brussels regime, this article considers the controversial arbitration exclusion to that regime and looks at the likely impact for commercial parties ...
In a recent judgment on the merits, the president of the Brussels Commercial Court held that the X shape of Mars's Dentastix dog food (see Figure 1 below) constituted a valid three-dimensional (3D) Community trademark and a valid Benelux design. Both IP rights had been invoked cumulatively against a Belgian company commercialising similar X-shaped chew sticks for dogs (Figure 2) on the European market.
View More
The Parliament passed a bill on halal products in September 2014 and on 17 October 2014 the President enacted the bill as Law No. 33 of 2014 on Guaranty for Halal Products (Law 33 of 2014). Law 33 of 2014 requires that all products imported, distributed, or traded in Indonesia bear a halal certificate ...
On January 27, the British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in Bea v. The Owners Strata Plan, LMS 2138, 2015 BCCA 31, upholding the lower court’s decision finding the Plaintiff and her husband in contempt of Court and granting the extraordinary relief that the Plaintiff’s strata unit (the “Unit”) be seized and sold by the respondent (the “Owners”) ...
The top level domain .УКР was delegated to Ukraine by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on 28 February 2013. The Ukrainian Network Information Center (UANIC) became administrator and manager of .УКР domain. Registration in the .УКР domain opened on 22 August 2013. Thus, this domain became the fourth Cyrillic domain of top level after the Russian .P$, the Serbian .CPS and the Kazakh .КАЗ ...
On January 1, 2015, the jurisdictional threshold of the Small Claims Court will be raised from $7,000 to $15,000. This constitutes a first step toward the modernization of civil procedure, explained the Minister of Justice, which will be followed by the coming into force of the new Code of Civil Procedure in January 2016.On February 28, 2014, the National Assembly passed Bill no ...
Motivated by the desire to optimize all matters concerning arbitration and to adapt our previous legislation to the principles set by the United Nations Commission of International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Panamanian National Assembly enacted the Law No. 131 of 31st December 2013 on National and International Commercial Arbitration (the “Arbitration Act”). A summary thereof follows. Scope This Act applies to arbitrations, both national and international, with seat within Panamanian territory ...
The starting point for mediation in commercial disputes is that the parties themselves are in the best position to resolve the dispute, instead of entrusting it to an arbitrator or a judge. In this way, the parties retain control over their conflict, thus increasing the opportunities to reach a flexible solution. In this article we will briefly review the alternatives offered by the public courts in Sweden when a dispute already has emerged ...
The quality of one’s life is determined by the quality of the questions one asks oneself every day, and the realization that this truth applies equally to lawyering. Our theory, borne of experience, is that a lawyer conditioned to ask an empowering question when adversity strikes, such as: “How can I use this?” is a better and more effective advocate. You might one day owe your life to an accident. Literally ...
The trade mark laws of the world are, by and large, fairly well harmonised, or at least well on their way to becoming so. Which makes perfect sense in an era where multinational companies operate in a global village – a multinational should ideally get the same protection for its brand in all the countries where it operates. It is for this reason that South African trade mark law offers the same sort of protection to trade mark owners that many other countries offer ...
Loose lips sink ships. They also can sink the protections of the attorney-client privilege. A case in point is a recent decision from the Southern District of Florida. Guarantee Insurance Co. v. Heffernan Insurance Brokers, Inc., Case No. 13-23881-CIV (S.D. Fla. June 13, 2014). In that case, Guarantee Insurance had been sued for the alleged bad faith handling of a worker’s compensation insurance claim ...
The U.S. Supreme Court during its 2013-2014 term decided on six patent cases, the last on June 19, 2014. These cases will have significant consequences for companies as they work to advance their strategy for protecting their intellectual property. The following summary provides highlights of each case. Medtronic Inc. v. Mirowski Family Ventures LLC Question: First some background: The Supreme Court in MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech Inc., 549 U.S ...
In March 2013, the Florida Supreme Court issued a seminal decision for businesses and commercial litigators, Tiara Condominium Association Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, 110 So. 3d 399 (Fla. 2013), in which it expressly limited the applicability of the economic loss rule to products liability cases. For decades, Florida courts had applied the economic loss rule to prohibit a party in contractual privity from seeking to recover economic damages arising from the contract ...
According to the Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs (CDR), you can protect a design without registering it. But here is the catch: the unregistered design must be new and have an “individual character”. So, what is individual character? A recent court case gives insight. It specifically addresses the fashion industry, but the ideas are useful for any company that does not register all of its designs ...
