In a pair of unanimous decisions issued today, the United States Supreme Court has substantially lowered the bar for the prevailing party’s recovery of attorneys’ fees under § 285 of the Patent Act. 35 U.S.C. § 285 provides that a prevailing party may recover attorneys’ fees in an “exceptional case ...
In recent years, one clause of the ISDA Master Agreement has been the source of a great deal of consternation among derivatives lawyers: the condition precedent set forth in Section 2(a)(iii), which purports to suspend a party’s payment obligations in the event of a continuing default by the other party ...
On April 10, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, White House senior adviser Rand Beers, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission announced the release of the antitrust agencies’ “Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity Information ...
The New Year brought good news for Romanian intellectual property counselors. The Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (SOIT) introduced the trademark E-filing system ...
The Minister of Trade has promulgated Regulation No 04/M-DAG/PER/1/2014 on 11 January 2014 which lists: 1 - 186 refined and processed mining products which are restricted to be exported (Attachment I of the regulation), such as metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals and rocks (including silver, gold and copper which contain certain levels of certain mineral elements) ...
In an attempt to improve the quality of Listed Companies and the liquidity of Public Company shares, the Director of the Indonesian Stock Exchange amended Regulation Number I-A on the Listing of Shares and Equity Securities other than Shares Issued by Listed Companies (No. KEP-00001/BEI/01-2014). The main issues regulated under this amended Regulation relate to the term of office of the independent commissioner and independent director in a listed company and free float shares ...
In an attempt to increase a bank’s ability to absorb risks, the improvement of a bank’s capital quality and quantity to be in accordance with international standards is deemed necessary. In order to increase a bank’s capital quality, it is also considered necessary for the bank to have additional capital which will have the function as a buffer in the event of a financial and economic crisis which may negatively affect the stability of the financial system ...
Currently, provisions on fit and proper tests for non-banking financial services are provided separately in several regulations and they apply different standards of fit and proper test procedures and materials. In an attempt to unify the fit and proper test requirements for non-banking financial services, the Financial Services Authority (“OJK”) issued Regulation No. 4/POJK ...
As a newly established authority pursuant to Law No. 21 of 2011 on the OJK (“OJK Law”), the OJK requires proper financing to support its operations so that it can carry on its duties and functions independently and professionally, and in accordance with good corporate governance principles. One of the OJK’s financing sources is from charges obtained from financial services institutions and/or individuals or entities engaging in financial services ...
On March 21, 2014, the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (“Division”) of the CFTC issued a no-action relief letter (the “2014 Letter”),1 to temporarily allow entities to deal in utility operations-related swaps, as defined in the 2014 Letter, without counting such swaps towards the “sub-limit” threshold for swap dealer registration with regard to such swaps ...
FATCA is a United States Act that requires US persons, including individuals who live outside the United States, to report their financial accounts held outside of the US, and requires foreign financial institutions (“FFIs“) to report information regarding their US clients to the US Internal Revenue Service (“US IRS”). FATCA was meant to combat offshore tax evasion and to recoup federal tax revenues ...
The Government has announced radical changes which are likely to significantly affect the way in which people access and use their pension savings in the UK ...
CONTENTS The 2014 Federal Budget Plan sounds the death knell for two family tax planning measures much appreciated by entrepreneurs and some professionalsThe Expert and the CourtYou signed a contract for services... with an employee? How to properly identify the relationship between the parties and what are the consequences of a wrong categorization ?Application of GAAR to a cross-border debt “clean-up” transaction: The Pièces Automobiles Lecavalier Inc ...
On 26 November 2013 the Danish Government and the Government of Greenland handed over their scientific documentation for sovereignty over the continental shelf northeast of Greenland to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) and thereby submitted a claim for an area of approximately 62,000 square kilometres off the Greenlandic north coast between Greenland and Svalbard (Norway) ...
As of February 2014, Amendments to the Gas Market Act have become applicable in Croatia. The amended Act defines the new role of wholesale supplier of natural gas. Supplier should be company that domestic natural gas producers will sell the gas under regulated price and conditions and who will then resell the natural gas at another regulated distribution price to local suppliers that ultimately supply end users with natural gas ...
The recent case of Cooper v Bank of Scotland plc has once again highlighted the problems arising where a lender takes security over a matrimonial home to support the business debts of one of the spouses. In this case, Mrs Cooper argued that she signed the security as a result of misrepresentation by her husband. The Court agreed with this and ordered that the standard security granted by Mrs Cooper over her one half share in the Property was not enforceable ...
In a landmark case in Australia that is a first of its kind (but undoubtedly will not be the last), damages have been awarded to New South Wales school teacher, Mrs Christine Mickle, for offensive and defamatory tweets and Facebook posts made by an ex-student of the school where she taught. The student, Andrew Farley, apparently held a grudge against Mrs Mickle for playing what he perceived as a role in the removal of his father from the position of head music teacher at the school ...
The underwriters have priced the deal. The underwriting agreement has been signed. The issuer has returned its focus to running its business and the underwriters have moved on to the next deal. All that is left is for the lawyers to document the terms and to ensure that the underwriters are in a position to move money at closing. Then, a day or two after pricing, the plant unexpectedly blows up ...
A little known provision contained in the EU’s internal energy market directives requiring Commission approval for ‘level playing field measures’ could prove to be a headache for policy makers looking to correct perceived imbalances between incumbent energy players and new entrants ...
On February 26, 2014, the Supreme Court held that state-law fraud class actions brought against attorneys, insurance brokers and others arising from Ponzi-scheme claims involving R. Allen Stanford could proceed. In a 7-2 decision in Chadbourne & Parke LLP v. Troice, 571 U.S ...
On January 27, 2014, the parliamentary secretary of the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs tabled five treaties in the House of Commons dealing with intellectual property, of which three relate to trademarks ...
Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Paraguay’s government bond rating by one notch to Ba2 from Ba3, and changed the outlook to positive from stable. According to Moody’s, the “decision to upgrade Paraguay’s rating was driven by the following factors: 1. The improving standing of Paraguay’s key fiscal metrics relative to ‘Ba’ peer medians.2. A strengthened institutional framework as a result of the legislation package that was approved last year.3 ...
The moniker "spam" for unsolicited and often indiscriminate electronic communications to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups derives from a famous sketch in the British television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. However, these days spam is no joke. It is a scourge on modern communications ...
