On June 28, 2010, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision on Bilski v. Kappos regarding what inventions are eligible for patent protection. The decision affirms that business methods are patentable, although the specific business methods at the center of the case are not. While stating that no single test governs the issue, the Court approved of the use of the “machine-or-transformation test” that the Federal Circuit had distilled from earlier Supreme Court cases ...
Which group of creditors is entitled to the money held by a monitor for purposes of carrying out a plan of arrangement under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) when the debtor goes bankrupt prior to the distribution: only the creditors covered by the plan of arrangement, or all of the creditors, even those not covered by the plan, for example, subsequent creditors? This controversial issue was considered by Judge Jean-Yves Lalonde in
a recent Superior Court decision rendered in the Province of Quebec is of interest. This decision rendered by Judge Jean-François Emond, sitt ing in Bankruptcy division for the Superior Court in the District of Quebec City, deals with a Progress Payment Agreement and a Mast er Lease Agreement between a financing company, Maxium Financial Services Inc. (hereinafter: “Maxium”) and a golf cart rental company, Desrosiers Golf Inc. (hereinafter: “Desrosiers”) ...
The UK is a mature oil and gas province, past its peak, competing for investment in a global market. Nevertheless, there are still huge reserves of oil and gas remaining. Industry association Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) estimates that up to 25 billion barrels of oil equivalent could still be produced from UK waters. To put that in perspective, around 40 billion barrels have been produced to date ...
Just one day after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit indicated that it would consider the current state of the inequitable conduct doctrine en banc in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton Dickinson and Co., a split panel of the Federal Circuit issued a decision in the case of Avid Identification Systems, Inc. v. Crystal Import Corp. affirming a lower court’s finding of inequitable conduct ...
The UK is a mature oil and gas province, past its peak, competing for investment in a global market. Nevertheless, there are still huge reserves of oil and gas remaining. Industry association Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) estimates that up to 25 billion barrels of oil equivalent could still be produced from UK waters. To put that in perspective, around 40 billion barrels have been produced to date. OGUK forecasts that with sufficient investment the UK could be producing 1 ...
This is Lawson Lundell’s web-based publication dedicated to keeping readers informed aboutdevelopments in Canadian mining law. For more information regarding the articles in thisnewsletter, please contact Chris Baldwin at 604.631.9151 or [email protected] orChristine Kowbel at 604.631.6762 or ckowbel@lawsonlundell ...
On April 16, 2010, the Quebec Court of Appeal issued a judgment concerning the right of a general partnership (“S.E.N.C.”) to file for assignment under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the “BIA”) without its partners having also filed for the assignment of their assets, themselves ...
The Quebec Court of Appeal issued a judgment concerning the right of a general partnership (“S.E.N.C.”) to file for assignment under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the “BIA”) without its partners having also filed for the assignment of their assets, themselves ...
Maintaining cash flow is a significant challenge in the current economic climate. What started as a 'credit crunch' is now a real squeeze for business - with customers trying to defer payment terms while suppliers apply pressure for earlier payment. Pre-contract Truly effective credit management begins at the pre-contractual stage, as this is usually the point of greatest leverage with the customer ...
1. The Concepts of “Trust” and “Security Trustee” It would be difficult to identify a universally accepted definition of “trust” and “security trustee” although these legal concepts appear to be well-developed in common law systems and are also acknowledged in a few civil law jurisdictions ...
2009 Prediction: Further penetration of Software as a Service (SaaS) Australia will see a proliferation of businesses adopting SaaS in 2009. With no hardware, maintenance or upfront capital costs, SaaS will be seen as ideal for companies looking to control their costs in an uncertain economic environment. Some analysts predict that the global SaaS industry may be worth as much as A$10.7 billion during 2009 ...
At the end of January, the 468-page judgement of BSkyB v EDS was published, nearly eighteen months after the court hearing closed. Many, varied and worrying predictions as to the potential impact of this judgement had been made, but ultimately the judgement is unlikely to lead to radical changes in the relationship between IT and other suppliers and their customers ...
Contents* Quebec Modernizes its Corporate Law * Choosing a Name you Intend to Keep * Deemed Year-End on Loss of CCPC Status: One Possible Solution * Renewal Option or Privilege QUEBEC MODERNIZES ITS CORPORATE LAWValérie [email protected] Bill 63 – The Business Corporations Act was tabled before the National Assembly on October 7, 2009 and assented to on December 4, 2009 ...
The verdict has finally arrived in the long-running IT dispute between EDS and BSkyB, for which the trial ended over a year ago. With legal fees of around £70m and an anticipated damages award of £200m (against a contract reportedly worth only £48m), the case will change the landscape of supplying IT products and services forever. EDS supplied a customer relationship management system to BSkyB ...
Following the public discussions which took place after the approval of the Decree-Law no. 317/2009 of 30 October (Decree-Law 317/2009)[1], Decree-Law no. 3/2010 of 5 January (Decree-Law 3/2010) was published in the Official Gazette, imposing a prohibition on credit institutions to charge on automated teller machines[2] (ATM) transactions, as well as, a prohibition on beneficiaries to charge payment transactions in automatic payment terminals and devices[3] ...
One of the main talking points in the energy sector in recent months has been concerned with 'getting smart metering right'. But what is it about smart metering that businesses in particular have to 'get right'? To start, smart metering is not new – a number of countries have already been using it for different purposes. For example, in Italy, one of the motivating factors was to improve customer payment for energy ...
Recent developments in health and safety law will affect all those involved in offshore renewables projects, which are very much in focus following the Crown Estate’s announcement of Round 3 awards in early January. However, the new rules do bring clarity and consistency for those working in the sector and bring offshore health and safety regulation in line with onshore projects ...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is modifying the computer program it uses to calculate Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) in light of the recent decision in Wyeth v. Kappos, No. 2009-1120 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 7, 2010). In Wyeth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that the USPTO has been improperly calculating patent term adjustment under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b). The Federal Circuit’s decision will result in additional patent term for many U.S ...
In what may be a new opportunity for cybersquatters, the Colombian .CO registry will soon allow for registration of domain names ending in simply .CO. Such domain names may be a prime platform for social networking sites and brand owners. As the registry explains, the acronym .CO can be associated with terms that include company, corporation, commerce, communities, content, connect, communication, collaborate, and consumers ...
Interest rates have remained at an all time low of 0.5% for 10 months in a row and the Bank of England is continuing with its quantitative easing programme. It has been upped to a £200bn asset purchase programme to increase the money in the UK’s financial system and boost bank lending. Meanwhile, total government debt is projected to rise to £1.4 trillion, nearly doubling to 80% of GDP ...
A costly mistake by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has highlighted the importance of careful drafting to ensure access to a software program’s source code. The source code is the line of code in which the software is written, in language intelligible to a suitably trained software developer. Through the use of a compiler, the source code is converted to object code which forms the software program ...
To support the mining business the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources issued Regulation No.28 of 2009 regarding Mineral and Coal Mining Services Business (“GR No.28/2009”) on 30 September 2009. This regulation facilitates the implementation of Article 127 of Law No.4 of 2009 regarding Mineral and Coal Mining (“Mineral and Coal Mining Law”). The regulation repeals and replaces, certain previous ministerial decrees.Under Article 3 of GR No ...
As an initiative to develop Islamic finance and Islamic fund management in Hong Kong, the SFC signed a Declaration on Mutual Cooperation on Development of Islamic Capital Market and Islamic Collective Investment Schemes (Declaration) with the Securities Commission of Malaysia (MSC) on 9 November 2009, which provides a framework for the mutual recognition of Islamic funds (excluding hedge funds, wholesale funds and real estate investment trusts as defined in the
Chapter 10.2 of the SFC's Code on Unit Trusts and Mutual Funds (Code) requires that pricing errors for SFC authorised funds should be corrected as soon as possible and all necessary action should be taken to avoid errors occurring in the future. If the pricing error results in an incorrect price of 0 ...
