Workplace testing has proven to be a crucial piece in the UK government’s jigsaw to get British business back on its feet. But how can businesses implement a workplace testing programme and will the vaccine roll out make a difference? What is a lateral flow test? In March 2021, the government confirmed that almost 50,000 businesses had registered for free and regular lateral flow tests through the government funded workplace testing scheme ...
Rosa Ostrom (she/her/hers) Company: Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC Title: Associate Programs: Pronoun awareness, fighting misgendering, disability access, summer diversity associates, work with transgender prison inmates “Growing up with a substantial amount of privilege and with the support of my firm Schwabe, I feel like I am in a unique position to do this advocacy work ...
On May 14, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new final rule that will further delay the effective date of the Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technology (MCIT) and Definition of Reasonable and Necessary Final Rule (the Final Rule) until no earlier than Dec. 15, 2021 ...
Court of Appeal revisits the position of when time runs for claim in professional negligence. Careful thought is required when assessing limitation periods where there is a delay between the negligent act and the loss crystallising. The time when a cause of action accrues is critical when assessing whether that claim has been brought within the statutory limitation period ...
Haynes and Boone, LLP Counsel Raquel Alvarenga talked with HR Magazine about continued COVID-19-related accommodations for vaccinated employees.Below is an excerpt:Many businesses have developed policies on providing reasonable accommodations to employees who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine for religious or disability-related reasons. Employers shouldn't forget that fully vaccinated workers may need accommodations, too.In recently updated guidance, the U.S ...
Ministers announced yesterday that the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, which allows married couples to divorce without assigning blame, will not come into force until 6 April 2022. The announcement follows the long-awaited no fault divorce bill, which gained royal assent last year, Whilst the delay is disappointing for some, at least there is now certainty as to when the reform will finally be introduced ...
Remember Nirvana? There have been reports about an interesting copyright infringement case involving the grunge band Nirvana, a band that is still associated by many with frontman Kurt Cobain. Yet this case does not involve music copyright. Rather it deals with copyright in an artistic work, a drawing. How about Dante’s Inferno? The case has been brought by a lady called Jocelyn Susan Bundy. Bundy is the granddaughter of C.W. Scott-Giles, a heraldry expert who died in 1982 ...
Some opening words In South Africa, as in many jurisdictions, the concept of good faith (bona fides) crops up a lot. So, for example, in order to get registration of a trade mark, the applicant must have a good faith intention to use the trade mark. Once the trade mark is registered the owner must use it in good faith in order to keep the registration alive. In the words of George Michael, “You gotta have faith". Good faith ...
We tend to keep an eye on trade mark developments in Europe. It makes sense because South African trade mark law is very similar to EU trade mark law and there’s far more activity in the EU. South African courts do, of course, often consider EU trade mark judgments. Here are a few recent cases: Rounded curves, thicker lines and a horizontal orientation…was the judge’s mind wandering a little? This was an interesting one ...
On Thursday, May 27, 2021, article 2503 of the Civil Code of Québec was amended as part of the adoption of Bill 82, titled An Act respecting mainly the implementation of certain provisions of the budget speech of 10 March 2020, which we had discussedin a publication last December ...
The rapid spread of Covid-19 has placed the healthcare system in Thailand under severe pressure. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, new startups focusing on telemedicine have sprung up to take on the challenge of innovating the way healthcare services can be provided to patients ...
Gilbert P. Hyatt v. Andrew Hirshfeld, Appeal Nos. 2018-2390, -2391, -2392, 2019-1038, -1039, -1049, -1070 (Fed. Cir. June 1, 2021) This week’s Case of the Week explores a long-running dispute between controversial inventor Gilbert Hyatt and the Patent Office concerning patent applications filed in 1995 that claim priority to applications filed in the 1970s and 1980s. They can be fairly described as submarine patents ...
Key Points Starting July 31, 2021, all employees who are not fully vaccinated shall be provided respirators for voluntary use. Exclusion pay is required even if an employee is not able to work. Employers should amend their COVID-19 Prevention Plans. Introduction On June 3, 2021, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board (Board) passed changes to the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS). Initially, the Board voted 4-3 against the proposed ETS ...
Since the European Court of Justice declared the EU-US Privacy Shield as an invalid legal basis for the transfer of personal data to the US, stipulating increased requirements for the use of the EU standard contractual clauses in July 2020 (C-311/18, 'Schrems II'), uncertainty has been rife within many companies: a legally compliant data transfer to the USA on the basis of the Privacy Shield is no longer possible and the new EU standard contractual clauses announced in November 202
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Texas denied Factory Mutual’s Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings, finding that the plaintiffs adequately alleged that the presence of COVID-19 on their property caused covered physical loss or damage in the case of Cinemark Holdings, Inc. v. Factory Mutual Insurance Co., No. 4:21-CV-00011 (E.D. Tex. May 5, 2021) ...
In Notice 2021-31, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides broad guidance in a question-and-answer format on the application of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) regarding premium assistance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) continuation coverage provisions ...
By: Matthew Seror and Aaron Levine On June 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in a case that will likely determine once and for all whether courts are empowered to void copyright registrations based on immaterial registration errors, or whether a showing of bad faith or an intent-to-defraud is required. The underlying case, Unicolors v. H&M, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS U.S. App. LEXIS 17097 (9th Cir ...
This case concerns an adjudicator’s decision issued on 7 December 2020. The adjudicator found in favour of Faithdean plc, ordering Bedford House Ltd, the employer, to repay deductions of around £1.5 million. No payment was made to Faithdean and enforcement proceedings were issued in January 2021. Bedford did not put forward a defence. Instead, it argued it could not pay as it wished to know the exact amount in order to make a single payment to Faithdean ...
An adjudicator’s jurisdiction is central to their ability to determine a dispute between two parties; without it, their decision will be invalid and unenforceable by a court. Conversely, if an adjudicator has jurisdiction, then, as the Court of Appeal has repeatedly emphasised, that adjudicator’s decision must be enforced, even if it results from errors of procedure, fact or law ...
It is a well-established rule of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (the ‘Act’) that an adjudicator will only have jurisdiction to determine one dispute under a construction contract at any one time, unless their jurisdiction has been extended by consent of the parties ...
Our latest article in the series looking at the impact of the pandemic on different groups focuses on how COVID-19 has affected those within ethnic minorities, what this has meant for the BLM movement and what employers can do to better support employees. Impact of COVID-19 The latest statistics all point to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected those within ethnic minorities ...
According to the Court Service, around 80% of cases presently in the family courts of England and Wales involve at least one of the parties acting as an unrepresented litigant in person. Since 2013, when public funding for almost all family court cases was stopped, numbers have been steadily rising. The reasons are simple; many people decide to represent themselves in an attempt to avoid expensive legal bills ...
New measures for state contracting for economic reactivation. Through Decree 579 of 2021, issued on May 31 by the National Planning Department, certain transitory paragraphs enshrined in Decree 1082 of 2015 or the sole Regulatory Decree of the Administrative Planning Sector, were replaced in matters of state contracting ...
Introduction The Covid-19 vaccine is currently being rolled out, and according to the authorities’ vaccination-plan, a large part of the population will receive their first dose during the summer months. As a rule, one must take the vaccine in one’s own home municipality, and not in the municipality where one has a summer house etc. In addition, the authorities are working on a corona certificate ...
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, Appeal Nos. 2020-1475, -1605 (Fed. Cir. May 28, 2021) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit considered an appeal from the International Trade Commission affirming an Administrative Law Judge’s finding that 10X’s products violated the Tariff Act by infringing multiple patents and that they did not infringe another ...
