Last year, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Andrei Iancu noted that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to “fundamentally chang[e]” “the legal concepts of inventor or author.”[i] The USPTO recently had cause to consider this issue. On petition, the USPTO considered whether an applicant can name an AI program as an inventor on a patent application ...
On May 29th, 2020 the Energy Regulatory Commission (“ CRE ”) published in the Federal Official Gazette an administrative resolution declaring the extension of the suspension of all terms and proceedings before such authority from June 01st, 2020 until the sanitary authorities determine that there are no epidemiologic risks related to the gradual, careful and organized opening of the federal public administration activities ...
In the age of social distancing, it is about time the law is changed to allow wills to be executed electronically.Ingenious lawyers all over the Commonwealth are dreaming up rigmaroles for the signing of wills amid the pandemic. An English law firm has suggested that the will be signed at a park bench, with witnesses lurking nearby, ready to rotate around the document ...
On June 2, 2020, Resolution No. 36 was published in the Official Gazette, by means of which the National Mining Agency ("ANM") has changed Resolution No. 28/2020, which suspended the deadlines of certain procedural and material acts under its competence, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic ...
Industry solutions relying on artificial intelligence (AI)are growing faster than many had predicted. In addition to the important personal data protection considerations, another important question which this new and emerging technology is raising relates to the AI safety problems and their legal response. So far, the European Union and Bulgaria have not adopted legislation specifically tackling the AI phenomenon and in particular – the safety concerns associated with AI ...
As a complement to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection guide for the reduction of the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the Energy and mining industry, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (“MME”) together with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection issued Joint Memorandum 01 of 2020 (the “Memorandum”) ...
On May 25th, 2020, as per publicly available information, an administrative court in Mexico issued definitive suspensions against the resolution published on April 29th, 2020 by the National Center of Energy Control (“CENACE”) to guarantee the efficiency, quality, continuity and safety of the National Electric System, as part of the constitutional appeals filed by companies involved in renewable energy projects from wind and photovoltaic projects ...
On 25 May 2020, the General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") has been applied for two years. A few days prior to the GDPR's anniversary, the first administrative fines for violations of data protection were imposed in Finland. In Finland, an administrative fine under the GDPR may be imposed by the Sanctions Board formed jointly by the Data Protection Ombudsman and two Deputy Data Protection Ombudsmen ...
On May 15, 2020, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published a Policy on Reliability, Safety, Continuity, and Quality for the National Electric System (the “Policy”) in the evening edition of the Federal Registry (“DOF”). The purpose of the Policy is to promote the sustainable development of the power industry and guarantee its continuous, efficient, and safe operation for the benefit of users under the principle of Reliability ...
On May 21, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Offices of Energy Policy and Innovation and Electric Reliability jointly published and released their 2020 Summer Energy Market and Reliability Assessment. The report provides an overview of key market events and data for the nation’s ISOs/RTOs as well as a discussion on reliability in the various power regions for summer 2020. The report includes the following key items that are summarized below ...
On May 2020 the National Center of Energy Control (“CENACE”) instructed some of its operational offices throughout México the suspension of the measures included in its resolution dated April 29th, 2020 issued to guarantee the efficiency, reliability, quality, continuity and safety of the Electrical National System due to the pandemic disease COVID-19 (the “Resolution”) ...
Guatemala dawns today with the validity of a law, contained in the Decree 15-2020, extremely harmful for the country, the economy, the industry and legal certainty, and in violation of the Constitution. This law allows for the possibility of not paying certain basic services (water, cable, telephony, power [sic] (electric power) and internet) by the users, and imposes the obligation to public and private supplier companies not to suspend, under any circumstances, their provision ...
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has issued guidelines on data protection in work from home (WFH) arrangements (NPC PHE Bulletin No. 12 on “Protecting Personal Data in a Work from Home Arrangement; issued May 15, 2020). The full text of the guidelines can be found here: https://www.privacy.gov.ph/2020/05/npc-phe-bulletin-no-12-protecting-personal-data-in-a-work-from-home-arrangement/ ...
Setting natural gas prices, directly or indirectly, is already a tradition in Romania and 2020 is not an exception to the rule ...
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been forced to work from home and this has created new opportunities and very fertile ground for the emergence of cyber threats. Accordingly, on 29 April 2020, the Intermediaries Supervision Department of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular (Circular) containing examples of controls and procedures firms can put in place to manage their cybersecurity risks ...
Preface Artificial intelligence[1](AI) is widely recognised as one of the defining industrial phenomena of the 21stcentury. In today’s technology-dependent world, its potential impact on business and economic development can hardly be understated ...
This morning FERC issued an order approving in part and rejecting in part the CAISO’s tariff filing creating a new Off-Peak Deliverability Status (“OPDS”) for interconnection customers. The proposal was driven in part by the California Public Utilities Commission’s new methodology for calculating the qualifying capacity of solar and wind resources and the shift in peak demand to a period later in the day when less solar is available ...
Is Coronavirus the Great Leveller? When the novel coronavirus first started spreading like wildfire, people called it the “great leveller”. No respecter of status or economic background, Covid-19 affected people at all strata, from housemaids to Hollywood royalty; peons to prime ministers. Tom Hanks, Boris Johnson and an aide to US Vice President Mike Pence all contracted it ...
In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to redefine preclusion, reversing the Second Circuit’s decision in trademark dispute Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. v. Marcel Fashion Group Inc. The Second Circuit’s opinion had attempted to expand res judicata beyond the well-recognized issue preclusion and claim preclusion, creating a new category it called “defense preclusion ...
With the recent significant decline in commodity prices, and physical transportation and storage curtailments, due in large part to reduced demand related to the COVID-19 pandemic, producers are evaluating many of their producing oil and gas wells to determine whether some level of reduced production is appropriate ...
Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Center for Energy Control (“CENACE”) notified users of the Market Information System of its “Order to guarantee the efficiency, quality, reliability, continuity and security of the National Electric System, motivated by the recognition of the epidemic of the illness caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus (COVID-19),” (the “Order”), via the Public Area of the Market Information System of its official web
On April 27, the Cyberspace Administration of China ("CAC") and 11 other departments jointly announced the promulgation of the Measures for Cybersecurity Review (the "Measures"), which will come into effect on June 1, 2020 and replace the current Measures for Security Review of Network Products and Services (for Trial Implementation) (the "Trial Measures") ...
Whilst crypto-assets are customarily associated with high volatility, a low-volatility crypto-asset, the so-called “stablecoin”, has emerged recently. Stablecoin initiatives typically aim to create a store of value backing the crypto-asset and means of exchange. In view of the increasing discussion of such initiatives, in particular with global technology firms contemplating the issuance of their own stablecoin (e ...
