On Monday, June 3, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) announced MDARD’s decision to allow for commercial solar energy development on land currently enrolled in the Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program, commonly known as PA 116. PA 116 was established in 1975 and is designed to preserve farmland and open space in Michigan ...
The Government of North Macedonia announced an open call for awarding a contract for the use of a feed-in premium for electricity produced in photovoltaic power plants (“PVPPs”) on state land in North Macedonia, with total installed capacity of 35 MW. Two locations are envisaged for construction of the PVPPs – Azambegovo (Sveti Nikole) and Manastirec (Makedonski Brod) ...
The topic of “joint controllers” according to Art. 26 GDPR continues to gain momentum. The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Baden-Württemberg (LfDI) has now, for the first time, published a sample of an agreement for joint controllers under Art. 26(1) s. 2 GDPR as well as a sample relating to the fulfillment of obligations to inform the data subjects pursuant to Art. 26(2) s. 2 GDPR ...
There are hardly any companies that do not use video surveillance systems (CCTV). Such systems record areas such as plant and work facilities or entrance areas. Oftentimes, the video images are not only displayed live on a monitor (“camera-to-monitor system”), but are also recorded automatically for a certain period of time ...
Brenna K. Legaard is a registered patent attorney with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. Legaard wrote the following op-ed on the use of blockchain technology in health care. When health care professionals and consumers think of blockchain, their minds very likely go to famous cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But blockchain technology can be applied to so much more, including to the field of health care ...
A few years ago artificial intelligence was a concept applied to nothing else but science fiction films, nowadays, it has become a reality for many companies and industries in the development of their commercial, corporate and industrial activities. Before we start to understand the strengths or weaknesses of artificial intelligence and its perspective from the right of intellectual property, it is considered convenient to conceptualize it ...
For businesses who care about their brands, Pofma may be not be such a bad idea after all.Beyond Meat Inc. makes cows happy and cardiologists sad. Its Beyond Burger uses no meat and has no cholesterol, and contains less fat, fewer calories and more protein than a typical burger ...
According to statistics released by the European Commission earlier in 2019, the term “GDPR” amassed more Google searches than either Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian during the month of May 2018. Now that “GDPR” has become a household term, what have we learntin the 12 months since the introduction of the GDPR? 1 ...
Trademark law in Canada is undergoing a major change this year that will go into effect on June 17, 2019. We have compiled the three things you need to know and important steps you may want to take before the June 17, 2019 date passes. 1 ...
On 10 May 2019, the Chief Inspector of Mines published, in terms of the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (the “MHSA”), a Guidance Note on Medico-Legal Investigations of Mine Deaths.Legal status of the Guidance Note:It is important to note that the Guidance Note has been compiled with a view to provide guidance to all relevant stakeholders regarding their roles and responsibilities with regard to medico-legal investigations of both natural and unnatural mine deaths ...
‘Fake news’ - information or news that is proven to be either verifiably false or misleading - has become a major, global concern. As news and opinion pieces are increasingly pushed to readers via online and social media channels, the speed of their dissemination has accelerated exponentially, as have the challenges around regulating news and opinion ...
In the year 2000, the United Nations General Assembly designated April 26 as World Intellectual Property Day. The purpose of this is to highlight the role thatintellectual propertyrights play in encouraging innovation and creativity. Across the globe, and at the initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), there is a campaign every year to attract public interest to issues related to Intellectual Property ...
Recent events, including the investigations into Facebook’s handling of its users’ personal data, have highlighted the realization that personal data is, in today’s world, one of the most valuable resources for any business and that businesses not only collect and store their customers’ personal data but also use and even sell it for profit ...
The administrative fines that have been imposed by the different European supervisory authorities since the GDPR took effect vary enormously. While the highest administrative fines imposed by the German authorities to date have been EUR 20,000 and EUR 80,000 and have therefore remained well below the possible maximum fine of EUR 20 million or 4 % of worldwide annual turnover, other countries’ supervisory authorities have already delivered higher fines ...
This is to inform you that, on March 18 2019, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on “Introduction of amendments to the first, second part and Article 1124 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (the “Law”) was adopted ...
This is to inform you that, on March 18 2019, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on “Introduction of amendments to the first, second part and Article 1124 of the third part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (the “Law”) was adopted ...
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Spring 2019 Cybersecurity Newsletter includes new recommendations regarding how HIPAA covered entities can prepare to defend against cybersecurity attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs) and zero-day vulnerabilities ...
The reportable arrangement provisions were established by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) with the objective of obtaining information on certain types of transactions. The circumstances under which a person should report an “arrangement” to SARS, as defined in section 34 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (the “TAA”), are contained in sections 34 to 39 of the TAA ...
Even before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, there were discussions as to whether the use of tracking cookies, which make it possible to analyze the usage and browsing behavior of a user on the Internet and use it for interest-based advertising, requires prior consent (opt-in) of the user or whether a dissent solution (opt-out) is sufficient. The German data protection authorities are of the opinion that users must give their consent ...
In a recent decision by the Technology and Construction Court (TCC), Judge Stewart-Smith has clarified the position when determining whether two adjudications are “the same or substantially the same” when a party challenges jurisdiction under Para 9(2) of the Scheme for Construction Contracts. He stated that thedecisionreached in the first adjudication must be considered as well as the disputesreferredto adjudication in each ...
On 13 March 2019, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Baden-Württemberg (LfDI BaWü) published the latest version of his guidebook on employee data protection. In this brochure, the LfDI BaWü offers an insight into his work and explains his opinion regarding the various points of view surrounding employee data protection ...
Texas LawyerMarch 14, 2019By Rodrigo Figueroa According to ERCOT, the entity that oversees 90 percent of the State’s grid, as of January 2019 there was nearly 1,500 megawatts of installed utility-scale solar capacity in the ERCOT region, with that number expected to almost triple to 4,300 megawatts by the end of 2020 (one megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes in Texas during times of high-peak demand) ...
Cloud computing and offshoring of data is no longer a taboo among banks. It is becoming a necessity and is the current definitive trend. However, the South African Reserve Bank (“SARB”) has issued a directive and guidance note detailing items banks must consider when electing to adopt cloud computing as a service or any offshoring of data ...
The implementation of cybercrime legislation is a pressing issue given that South Africa has one of the highest numbers of cybercrime victims in the world. In addition, a number of unsuspecting individuals and organisations alike fell prey to the scourge of cyber scams which seemed to spike quite rapidly in the past year. The Cybercrime Bill was adopted by the Portfolio Committee for Justice and Correctional Services in November 2018 and sent to the National Assembly for debate ...
The pervasiveness of the Internet of Things has spawned a recent fear that the devices are listening to the conversations of their users. For instance, the My Friend Cayla doll talks to children and answers their questions by connecting to the internet and using a combination of voice recognition software and Google searches to provide these responses ...
