Significant False Claims Act (FCA) developments in the courts during the latter part of 2022 have included the Supreme Court’s declining to take up one issue involving FCA qui tam actions (what level of pleading particularity Rule 9(b) requires) while holding argument on another (the scope of the government’s dismissal power following declination), and the D.C. Circuit’s adoption of the pro tanto rule in computing settlement offsets in multiple-defendant cases ...
The Association’s claim is a torts claim on behalf of approximately 400.000 residential alarm customers against the two major Norwegian alarm companies. Sector and Verisure colluded over eight years and were fined NOK 1,2 billion (120 million euros) by the Norwegian Competition Authority. The question that the Supreme Court shall decide is whether third-party financing in opt-out class actions can be permitted under the Norwegian Dispute Act ...
Dinsmore partner Faith Whittaker and associate Jared Phalen were published in Bank Director with their article "New Law Ends Pre-Dispute NDAs for Workplace Sexual Harassment, Assault Disputes." An excerpt is below. On Nov. 16, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives sent the Speak Out Act to President Joe Biden’s desk with a 315-109 vote. The legislation, which cleared the Senate unanimously on Sept ...
The Supreme Court has decided several cases concerning the Civil Procedure Act this autumn. We would like to start by mentioning HR-2022-1503-U, which concerned the difference between an ordinary witness and an expert witness. Two decisions concerning recusal are also noteworthy: HR-2022-1959-A and HR-2022-1799-U. The question in the first case was whether a judge had to recuse himself because his textbook expressed an opinion about the legal issue in the case ...
Mosaic Brands, Inc. v. Ridge Wallet LLC, Appeal Nos. 2022-1001, -1002 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 20, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit discussed the corroboration requirement concerning the amount of evidence needed to successfully invalidate a patent as anticipated. Mosaic claimed that Ridge infringed Mosaic’s patent and trade dress for a money-clip wallet. Ridge countered that Mosaic infringed Ridge’s own patent for a money-clip wallet ...
The Intellectual Property and Related Rights (Amendment) Law of 2022, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus on 7 October 2022, aims to harmonise the Cyprus copyright regime with various acts at the European Union (‘EU’) level and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. This Law amends and redefines already existing concepts and establishes new definitions and obligations ...
In 2022, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued six bid protest decisions worthy of particular note. ASRC Federal Data Solutions LLC ESimplicity Inc. v. U.S. Hydraulics International Inc. v. U.S. IAP Worldwide Services Inc. v. U.S. MP Solutions LLC Trace Systems Inc. This article by Aron C. Beezley, Patrick R. Quigley, Sarah Sutton Osborne, Lisa Markman, Nathaniel J. Greeson and Gabrielle A ...
On December 14, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board reinstated a previous test used to determine which employees must be included in an appropriate bargaining unit. In American Steel Construction, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 23 (2022), the Board overruled the test established in PCC Structurals, 365 NLRB No. 160 (2017), and The Boeing Co., 368 NLRB No. 67 (2019), opting to return to the test set forth in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) ...
What are Digital Assets? The Official Bermuda Definition The definition of "digital asset" under Bermuda's Digital Asset Business Act 2018 ("DABA") is: "anything that exists in binary format and comes with the right to use it and includes a digital representation of value that – (a) is used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value and is not legal tender… &nbs
The task of upgrading and developing the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to cope with current and future demand is no mean feat. The UK Government has committed to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 ...
On 14 December 2022, the People's Bank of China ("PBOC") issued for public comments the Measures for Administration and Supervision of Financial Market Infrastructures (the "FMI Measures"). The public comment period is open until 14 January 2023 ...
Construction professionals sometimes feel as if it is déjà vu when it comes to disputes—and they are right. There are a handful of claim types that always seem to rear their heads, even in projects that generally are run well. This article will briefly describe those claims and how to avoid them in 2023. 1. Design Error Claims These claims often come up when an inexperienced owner (or architect) are working on an entirely new type of project ...
A picture is worth a thousand words, but what about a drone video? To construction firms and the lawyers who represent them, drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”), enable firms to capture large amounts of high-quality information in a quick and efficient manner ...
The Site Report has extensively discussed the developments of 3-D printing building construction and its impact on the construction industry. 3-D printing structures is becoming more commonplace. Last month, Iowa State University began designing 3-D printed housing for rural Iowa. ICON Technology, Inc., an Austin, Texas company, is currently planning to build an entire subdivision in Texas using its 3-D printing technology ...
Video games have become increasing popular among all age groups in Indonesia – especially with the introduction of mobile video games in the past few years that allows almost all types of smartphones to operate the most popular video games with ease. Now, parents are no longer hiding the fact that their children from a very young age are much more interested in playing video games than playing outside ...
ADASA Inc. v. Avery Dennison Corporation, Appeal No. 2022-1092 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 16, 2022) In the Federal Circuit’s only precedential opinion this week, the Court considered issues arising from infringement litigation concerning appellee ADASA’s U.S. Patent No. 9,798,967 (the ’967 patent), which is directed to systems and methods for encoding radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. Following a $26 ...
The Council of the EU has now adopted its common position on the bloc's draft AI Act, as the legislation approaches final form. The updated position signals a number of important refinements to key principles in the previous text. The EU is hoping the legislation, once agreed and ratified with the European Parliament, will provide organisations within or trading into the EU with a uniform, risk-based framework, creating a single market for AI applications ...
On December 5, 2022, the Supreme Court issued the Supreme Court resolution No. 258-2022 regulating the criteria for the authorization of exceptional operation of the courts, as regulated in Articles 47 D and 68 bis of the Organic Code of Courts. The approval of the Courts of Appeals for the exceptional operation may become effective as of December 12, 2022, which may be extended for a period of one year, extendable for one more year without the need for a new request ...
Having elapsed the period contemplated for the transitory regime of Law No. 21,934, published on November 30, 2021 (the "Law"), by means of which a set of reforms to the justice system were introduced, the permanent regime provided by the Law, whose general rule is attendance regime, notwithstanding the exceptions contemplated by the Organic Code of Courts, is now in force. The main provisions of the permanent regime may be found in ours News Alert 454 and News Alert 453 ...
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) [1] entered into force on 1 November 2022. A business that considers the platform it uses will likely be designated as a ‘gatekeeper’ and that the platform’s rules/behaviour are unfair can take certain steps now [2]. Q1 2023 to Q2 2023 - Engage with the platform to change its rules/behaviour ...
Google LLC v. Hammond Development International, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-2218 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 8, 2022) In the only precedential patent decision this week, the Federal Circuit issued a decision concerning the effect of collateral estoppel in an inter partes review (IPR) based on a previous IPR decision ...
Just weeks after the “implosion” of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, credit services provider BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 protection with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, indicating that it is burdened with billions of dollars of estimated liabilities and more than 100,000 creditors ...
The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), has released a statement warning organisations to assess the public risks of using emotion analysis technologies, with those failing to do so risking investigation and enforcement action ...
Meta continues to make headlines for the wrong reasons in the data protection field as this week the Irish data regulator, the DPC fined the tech company €265 million ($275 million) for infringements of Articles 25(1) and 25(2) GDPR. It is nothing new that Meta pushes data protection boundaries ...
