A recent opinion, 731 Market Street Owner, LLC v. City and County of San Francisco (Cal. Ct. App., June 18, 2020, No. A154369) 2020 WL 3285962 (“731 Market Street Owner”), issued by a California Court of Appeal in San Francisco provides some relief to San Francisco building owners ...
A recent opinion, 731 Market Street Owner, LLC v. City and County of San Francisco (Cal. Ct. App., June 18, 2020, No. A154369) 2020 WL 3285962 (“731 Market Street Owner”), issued by a California Court of Appeal in San Francisco provides some relief to San Francisco building owners ...
Key Points: California Court of Appeal issues two landmark local government finance decisions. Propositions 13 and 218 do not require two-thirds voter approval for special taxes proposed by initiative. A toll is not a tax. The California Court of Appeal in San Francisco has issued two blockbuster decisions in the last week impacting local government finance ...
In an 8-1 decision delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the much-anticipated BOOKING.COM case, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that in some circumstances, a generic word combined with “.com” can be a protectable trademark. Generic marks are not eligible for trademark protection and are not actually marks at all. Instead, they are essentially the name for the product/service or type of product/service at issue ...
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has adopted a statement on restrictions on data subject rights in connection with the state of emergency in Member States. The EDPB emphasises that, despite the international crisis, the GDPR remains applicable and allows an efficient response to the pandemic, while still protecting fundamental rights and freedoms. The EDPB’s statement was made in response to a Hungarian government decree dated 4 May 2020 ...
How successfully a business emerges following this pandemic will depend to a great extent on how quickly it identifies and implements long term necessary changes. Nobody is yet clear what the post-Covid-19 world will look like. It is possible that things revert back to the way they were quicker than anyone imagines. That said, it is very difficult to imagine no lasting or consequential changes to the way we work or live ...
Many jurisdictions have put in place legislation to regulate merger activities. There have been discussions that it is high time for Malaysia to implement a general merger control regime under the Malaysian Competition Act 2010. As it presently stands, general merger activities which do not fall within two specific sectors (will be discussed below) are not regulated and no prior sanction is required from the Competition Commission before a merger transaction takes place ...
The doctrine of qualified immunity, often invoked by police officers and other government employees in lawsuits alleging civil rights violations, was recently asserted by defendants in a federal False Claims Act (FCA) fraud case. In an interlocutory appeal, a unanimous Fourth Circuit panel has held qualified immunity cannot shield defendants from FCA liability. Citynet, No. 18-1575, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19367 (4th Cir. June 22, 2020) ...
Arbitration is one of the preferred mechanisms of dispute resolution in the construction industry. Understanding how an arbitration will unfold is useful in managing a dispute. Most domestic construction disputes are referred to arbitration through, and according to the rules, of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), but other organizations that follow different rules and processes do exist. For AAA arbitrations, the following steps provide a rough outline of a typical proceeding ...
This 13th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in everything from constitutional law to tort liability. Shutdown cases show no signs of slowing down, and it seems probable that more will follow as some states reverse reopening plans in response to coronavirus outbreaks ...
Foreign brand owners have often questioned whether they need a trademark registration in the PRC when engaging PRC factories for Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) activities. Previously, a pure OEM arrangement with proper authorisation from the owner of a trademark registration in the exporting country, would generally not be considered infringement of identical or similar PRC trademarks ...
In a split decision with far-reaching implications for both government contractors and the private bar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Inserso Corporation v. U.S., recently addressed timeliness and waiver issues in the bid protest context. The facts of this significant case, the majority and dissenting opinions, as well as key takeaways for federal contractors and their attorneys, are discussed below. The Facts The U.S ...
On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not follow appropriate administrative procedures to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and, therefore, was unauthorized to do so. The decision was a 5-4 ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor ...
In the recent decision of Abdul Malek Bin Mohamed v MISC Bhd dated 17 June 2020 [Award 840 of 2020], the Industrial Court recognised that the tenure of service of an employee in an organisation does not shield the employee from having to render satisfactory performance at the level required by the Company. The Industrial Court upheld the dismissal of an employee for poor performance after 32 years of service ...
Under the Decree of the Moscow Mayor No. 68-UM dated June 8, 2020 (available only in Russian here), a phased removal of restrictions caused by the spread of coronavirus infection began from June 9. This includes the return to work of a large number of organizations. Starting from June 16, 2020 organizations and in-dividual entrepreneurs carrying out operations with real estate, activities in the area of rent, leas-ing, law, accounting, etc. are able to resume work ...
This 12th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in labor and employment cases, consumer protection cases, and civil rights litigation. Price gouging and fraud for personal protective equipment (particularly N95 masks) remain major focuses, with manufacturers, retailers, and governments all taking action ...
A case of forced resignation does not automatically amount to an unfair dismissal. In the recent decision of Mohd Rizam bin Ibrahim v Prince Court Medical Centre Sdn Bhd dated 5 June 2020 [Award 716 of 2020], the Industrial Court ruled that although the employee was forced to resign, the same was with just cause and excuse ...
The Fintech LandscapeDevelopments in 2019 in terms of sectors were:Payments: Remittance was an area of significant growth in 2019, with a number of notable non-bank payments service providers receiving Remittance (Class B) Licences from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). MoneyMatch, the first graduate from BNM’s Regulatory Sandbox programme for incubating and ensuring the sustainability and regulatory compliance of fintech start-ups, was the first to receive a licence at the start of the year ...
Key Points Title VII prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The holding does not change currently-existing legal obligations for California employers as discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited under the FEHA. California employers should ensure they are complying with FEHA’s posting and training requirements. On Monday, June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court published a long-awaited opinion, Bostock v ...
Key Points The third Golden Door iteration resulted in a common refrain: San Diego County has not yet reached the high bar for greenhouse gas mitigation (GHG) measures under CEQA Enforceability is a significant component of a CEQA compliant GHG mitigation measure In a nod to the recently approved Newhall Ranch plan, the Court of Appeal outlined the contours of acceptable carbon offset programs, both within and outside California In Golden Door Properties, LLC, v ...
A recent decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to have a significant impact on both copyright infringement matters and copyright registration practices in the Ninth Circuit, if not nationwide. The case, Unicolors v. H&M, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS U.S. App. LEXIS 17097 (9th Cir. May 29, 2020) involved claims for copyright infringement brought by Unicolors, Inc. (“Unicolors”) against retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P. (“H&M”) ...
It’s 8 am, and you just learned that a material cyber-incident occurred in your organization. You fire up your Incident Response Plan. You engage outside counsel, and outside counsel engages a forensic firm. Your company, your outside counsel, and your forensic firm all sign an agreement that the forensic firm will work at the direction of outside counsel ...
