Force majeure remains a hot topic when it comes to contracts. Following the pandemic, Suez Canal blockage and international sanctions, parties to contracts have been looking at how to possibly recover their losses or minimise the effects of delays. One question that had arisen was whether contracting parties could be forced to find a way around the issues by being commercially minded, particularly where they had an obligation to use reasonable endeavours to overcome the force majeure event ...
Over the last year, we have monitored a lawsuit in Georgia that alleged a hedge fund (“Fearless Fund”) violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981—the federal prohibition on racial discrimination in contracting—by operating a grant contest that awarded $20,000 grants to select small business owners, all of whom, by the contest’s express rules, had to be Black women. That case, American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund Management, LLC, settled yesterday ...
On September 8, 2024, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Three Departments"), publicly issued theNotice on Carrying Out Pilot Programs to Expand Opening-Up in the Healthcare Sector(hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), announcing that,effective immediately, foreign-invested enterprises are permitted to engage in the development and application of human stem cells, gene diagno
In Harrington v. Purdue Pharma LP in June, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code does not authorize nonconsensual releases of nondebtors as part of a Chapter 11 plan ...
On August 28, 2024, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) released the Medical Device Administration Law (Draft for Comment) (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft") for public comments ...
At a time when Canada and many other countries are taking steps to protect users from harm online,1a decision was handed down by the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”) on January 15, 2024, regarding the conduct of a competitor with respect to complaints about intellectual property infringement made on Amazon’s e-commerce website ...
On Aug. 1, following five years of litigation, Tevra Brands LLC's antitrust suit against Bayer Healthcare LLC came to an end in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ...
Law No. 21,398 (known as the "Pro-Consumer Law"), which amended Law No. 19,496, Consumer Protection Act ("CPA"), reinforced the right of withdrawal in distance purchases, establishing that: Consumers may exercise the right of withdrawal or repentance, within a period of 10 days from receipt of the product, without expression of cause, with respect to all purchases of goods, without conditioning the right to the will of the supplier ...
By: Stephen Best, Clayton Barnett, and Brian Adkins August 27, 2024 Introduction As many sports lawyers are aware, there have already been several examples of name, image, and likeliness (“NIL”) litigation throughout the country. In fact, we previously reviewed several groundbreaking cases which stood to fundamentally alter the landscape of college athletics ...
Introduction By: David Balfour The Medical Board of California investigates physicians for potential violations of the Medical Practice Act. If an investigation results in findings of violations, the Board will refer the case to the Attorney General’s Office recommending the filing of an Accusation seeking disciplinary action against the physician’s license ...
Novel technologies that seek to improve quality of life or simplify complex processes offer great promise. For example, medical technologies that detect or cure disease or supply chain technologies that allow for real time understanding of the location or destination of a specific product — make our lives easier and safer. They also pose potentially unforeseen complications ...
On the 9th of August 2024, the Health and Safety at Work Act, Act XXXIII of 2024 (Chapter 646 of the Laws of Malta) (hereinafter referred to as the ”Act”) was published by Parliament. Upon coming into force, the Act shall repeal the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (“OHSA” or “Authority”) Act (Chapter 424 of the Laws of Malta) and its subsidiary legislation ...
On 29 July 2024, the UAE enacted Federal Decree Law 9 of 2024 (theAmendment) introducing some significant changes to Federal Decree Law 33 of 2021 (theLabour Law), UAE’s principal legislation on employment. The Amendment replaces Article 54 of the Labour Law pertaining to individual labour disputes, and, Article 60 of the same law which sets out the penalties applicable for certain violations by employers. The Amendment comes into force on 31 August 2024 ...
China's pharmaceutical industry is witnessing a notable surge in "pipeline spin-off projects", a model commonly referred to as the "Spin-off-NewCo" or "SON" model. Within the past two months, we've been advising on nearly ten SON projects. Leading pharmaceutical companies in China are more frequently adopting the SON model to separate parts of their pipelines into new, independent companies ...
August 14, 2024 By: Wendy Lee A little more than a year ago, on July 23, 2023, the Washington My Health My Data Act (WMHMDA) was passed into law. The law originally went into effect on March 31, 2024, however the compliance deadline for small businesses was June 30, 2024. This law was passed as a reaction to the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court ruling and was designed to protect consumer health data ...
On 30th July 2024, when considering Application number 88/21/2, the Court of Appeal was tasked with deciding two primary issues and grievances brought forward by the appellants against the decision of the First Court. These were the appropriate multiplier for calculating the victim’s loss of future earnings, and moral damages following Act XIII of 2018 ...
On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) rolled out its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program after announcing the initiative in March. Described as “[s]upercharging DOJ’s corporate investigations and prosecutions,”[1] the Pilot Program dramatically expands the pool of would-be whistleblowers and underscores the importance of robust compliance and reporting programs ...
A private sale may start an inventor’s one-year filing clock, but it likely won’t save a patentee from an intervening prior art reference. On July 31, 2024, in a precedential decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) elaborated on the prior art public sale exception set forth in 35 U.S.C. §102(b)(2)(B). Specifically, the CAFC affirmed that a secret sale of a product would not be sufficient to pre-date a prior art reference under 35 U.S ...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case that may have far reaching implications for businesses facing consumer protection claims in the state. The Court has granted allocator in Halpern v. Ricoh U.S.A., Inc ...
Effective July 29, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has issued a final rule that expands the scope of its existing Health Breach Notification Rule (“HBNR”) to include health and wellness applications (“apps”) typically associated with wearable technologies such as smart watches ...
In a judgment decided on the 26th of June 2024 in the names Marcus Scicluna Marshall et vs Michael Borg Cardona, the Court of Appeal in its Inferior Jurisdiction confirmed that no appeal can be filed from the rate established by the Rent Regulation Board to increase the rent for leases predating the year 1995 ...
On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final rule[1] outlining financial penalties, referred to as “disincentives” throughout the rule, for healthcare providers that engage in conduct that is considered “information blocking.” The 21st Century Cures Act defines information blocking as a “practice that interferes with, prevents, or materially discourages access, exchange, or use of electronic health information ...
On June 28, 2024, Exempt Resolution No. 1,160 of May 31, 2024 was published in the Official Gazette, which approved the “Technical Guideline of the Public Health Institute that establishes the requirements for the application for modifications to the sanitary registration of biological products (M-MOBI)” ...
The UAE recently amended its legal framework on abortion to expand the circumstances under which abortions are permitted and ease the rules regarding the circumstances under which abortions are permissible. Cabinet Decision No. 44/2024 (the Decision) came into effect on 21 June 2024 and progressively changed UAE’s law on abortion ...
