Gareth Bale has been in the news last week for transferring to Real Madrid in a record £85m deal. Less well known is that at the beginning of August he successfully registered as a UK trade mark a logo based on his signature goal celebration. His Eleven of Hearts logo is registered against several classes of goods including precious metals, jewellery, clothing, footwear and even parasols and walking sticks ...
In commercial contracts there is often a ‘waterfall’ clause, which provides for a dispute escalation process prior to the commencement of formal legal proceedings, leaving litigation as the last resort. Such clauses were determined to be legally binding in Cable & Wireless Plc v IBM United Kingdom Ltd [2002] EWHC 2059 (Comm) ...
In recent years, NASA has spent millions, if not billions, of dollars developing what they call “US commercial crew space capabilities” – in ordinary terms they want to make it easier to access the International Space Station from Earth. In trying to achieve this aim they have entered into various commercial agreements under the National Aeronatics and Space Act, known as Space Act Agreements (SAAs), instead of using more traditional form commercial contracts ...
On 25 January 2012, the European Commission decided that a substantial overhaul of data protection regulation is required and issued its proposals for change. The proposals are currently making their way through the legislative process in Brussels but, once approved, are expected to take effect at some point in 2014 ...
Guarantees are a common feature in commercial leases. A guarantor will guarantee a tenant’s obligations under a lease, for example the payment of rent. This provides security to the landlord and can help to maintain continuity of rental income regardless of the default or insolvency of the tenant. However, problems can arise with enforcement of guarantees where the obligations being guaranteed have been changed without the guarantor’s consent ...
Never has there been a more controversial law in the past decade than the Reproductive Health Law (“RH Law”). After a long and contentious battle in Congress, the law was finally passed. But the fervent opposition by the so-called Pro-life groups (chief among them the Catholic Church) endures. Four days after the approval of the law’s Implementing Rules and Regulations (“IRR”), the Supreme Court on March 19, 2013, halted its implementation, issuing a 120-day status quo ante order ...
BackgroundFollowing much anticipation on the part of health care industry members, CMS released its long-awaited final rule on the Physician Payment Sunshine Act in February 2013, supplying clarification and guidance on new financial disclosure requirements governing pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. The rule includes extensive and potentially time-consuming mandates for drug and device companies, including reporting of annual payments to physicians and teaching hospitals ...
Use of a domain name: is it a form of advertising? Following the decision in Case C-657/11 (Belgian Electronic Sorting Technology BV v Bert Peelaers, Visys NV), the rules of fairness imposed by European Directives 84/450 and 2006/114 on misleading and comparative advertising will extend to cover not just the content of a web site, but the domain name at which it is registered as well. See our commentary here ...
Under EU Directive 2001/29 on the harmonisation of copyright law, Member States grant authors, performers, producers and broadcasting organisations exclusive rights to authorise or prohibit reproductions of their own works ...
Businesses in the UK have for some time been subject to strict rules on misleading advertising, contained in the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (the “BPRs”) ...
Personal data regulation is a recently developed topic in the legal realm. In 1970, the first laws on the matter were issued in Europe and North America. Specifically, the first data protection law called the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz was issued in Germany on October 7, 1970, and the same year the United States Congress issued the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which controls the collection, use and redistribution of any consumer information ...
The insolvency of one or other of the parties to a dispute has become commonplace in recent times, particularly in construction related disputes. Practitioners are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the implications of insolvency on procedure and the potential remedies available ...
In Novozymes A/S v. DuPont Nutrition Biosciences APS, 2012-1433 (Fed. Cir. July 22, 2013), the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of DuPont’s post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law holding that Novozymes’ U.S. Patent No. 7,713,723 (“the ’723 patent”), directed to a variant of alpha-amylase, was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, for failing to satisfy the written description requirement.2 (Slip op. at 18) ...
Internal investigations are a central part of the crisis management response, and whilst the form and structure of the investigation will depend on the type of crisis, investigations will generally focus on identifying root causes and those with responsibility for the crisis ...
ICANN is expected to announce the first set of successful applications and list of new generic top level domains later this summer. Before the new generic top level domains can be delegated, the applications need to go through an initial evaluation phase and any objections against those applications need to be addressed. Infact, the first decisions on legal rights objections to applications for new generic top level domains were only recently published by WIPO ...
Statute of limitations for appeal of public auction contractsThe Higher Commercial Court recently clarified several issues relating to the statute of limitations for appeals of public auction contracts. (Higher Commercial Court of Ukraine Resolution 10 ("On Certain Practical Issues of Statute of Limitation Application"), May 29 2013 ...
Minister of Health Regulation No. 30 of 2013 on The Inclusion of Information on Sugar, Salt, and Fat Content, and Health Impact Messages for Processed and Fast Foods is aimed at lowering the exposure of the public to the risk of non-contagious disease such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes and heart attacks, which can be caused by the excessive consumption of processed or fast foods ...
The Minister of Health has issued Regulation No. 28 of 2013 on Affixing Health Warnings and Information on Tobacco Product Packaging which came into force on 12 April 2013, as a further implementation of Government Regulation No. 109 of 2012 on Control of AddictiveSubstances in the Form of Tobacco Products. The Regulation requires tobacco producers and importers to affix pictorial health warnings and health information on their tobacco products packaging ...
The Head of the National Drug and Food Control Agency (Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan – “BPOM”) recently issued Regulation No. 27 of 2013 on The Supervision of Drugs and Food Imports into Indonesian Territory which came into effect on 28 May 2013. This Regulation repeals and replaces the previous regulations on Imports of Processed Foods, Cosmetics and Drugs ...
While arbitration offers an excellent means for parties to get their disputes settled faster than in traditional courts, how you draft the arbitration clause in a document is critically important for a positive outcome – should a dispute arise. Legal agreements often have a clause indicating that parties agree to settle any disputes arising from the arrangement in arbitration. The text for this clause is frequently supplied by a local arbitration institute ...
Don't bank just yet on putting your marketing muscle behind the safe and effective off-label uses of your FDA-approved drugs, or defending your next mass consumer class action on First Amendment grounds. But you can start giving those multi-billion dollar prospects some serious thought, because constitutional winds are blowing through the Code of Federal Regulations ...
Legal succession of banksUkrainian legislation prescribes a special reorganisation procedure for banks that, among other things, requires banks to:• develop a reorganisation plan;• obtain approval for internal statute changes from the National Bank of Ukraine; and• conduct an audit to ensure the correctness of transfers (for mergers and acquisitions) or the demerger balance sheet (for spin-offs and transfers) ...
Myriad Genetics is known as a leader in the market for diagnostic testing of BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations that have been linked to breast and ovarian cancer. These same diagnostic tests were recently in the celebrity press, as Angelina Jolie announced she had been tested positive for the mutations, resulting in her electing to have a preventative double mastectomy ...
