Ohio legislators recently introduced proposed H.B. 679, expanding telehealth services. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become more prevalent and necessary. Ohio lawmakers realize telehealth is only going to become more widespread in the future, as patient usage and acceptance continue to grow. If enacted, H.B ...
A case note by Sim Sook Eng ...
Compounding of Offences under the Malaysian Trademarks Act 2019 and RegulationsSection 136 (2) of the Trademarks Act 2019 (“Act”) grants the Controller with the power to compound offences under the Act. In essence, compounding means payment as a settlement in lieu of prosecution of an offence.Further, section 136 (1) of the Act empowers the Minister to make regulations pertaining to compounding with the approval of the Public Prosecutor ...
Cybersecurity will generally be a significant issue for businesses in the years to come. With teleworking, cloud computing and the advent of artificial intelligence, large amounts of data are likely to fall prey to hackers attracted by the personal information or trade secrets contained therein. From a legal standpoint, businesses have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the personal information they hold ...
COVID-19 has sent many employers into a workforce management tailspin. Laws, regulations, and recommendations change daily, and as the pandemic continues to affect the workplace, the risk of legal complacency increases. The list below identifies the top 10 mistakes for employers to avoid during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mistake 1: Failing To Prepare and Update a COVID-19 Response Plan ...
The International Trade Commission (ITC) sits in a nondescript office building about a block farther south of the National Mall than tourists usually care to venture. Patent owners come from around the country to this tree-lined street in Washington, D.C., to seek a powerful remedy to protect their patented products: an exclusion order. An exclusion order directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block infringing imports at the United States border ...
Law is an ever-evolving social construct and remains effective only insofar as it can be updated in a timely manner to keep up with real-life developments. The relevance of laws and their subject matter is always dictated by present-day realities and circumstances ...
Key Points A new FDA rule clarifies when food manufacturers may label fermented or hydrolyzed foods as gluten-free. Manufacturers making gluten-free claims must maintain records showing that the foods or food ingredients used in the foods are gluten-free prior to fermentation or hydrolysis. A product marked as gluten-free may be deemed misbranded under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act if its manufacturer does not maintain supporting documentation to the satisfaction of the FDA ...
On August 26, 2020, Resolution No. 000093-2020-PRE/INDECOPI was published in the Official Gazette “El Peruano”, which adopts the Directive that establishes the procedure for payment of rewards under the scope of Article 28 of the Single Ordered Text of the Law for the Repression of Anticompetitive Conduct (the "Directive" and the "Competition Law", respectively) ...
On August 25, 2020, Board Resolution No. 003-2020-EF/68.0 was published in the Official Gazette “El Peruano”, approving the “Guidelines for the State's response to the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Public Private Partnership projects” (the “Guidelines”) ...
The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is providing EUR 50 million annually until 2023 to promote computer games in order to strengthen Germany as a location for developers. In the first phase,de minimis funding will be provided with grants of up to EUR 200,000. In a second phase larger-scale funding will also be possible ...
In an August 14, 2020 response to a letter written on behalf of the American Seniors Housing Association and Argentum, the General Counsel’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services has determined that senior living communities are a “covered person” under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which creates immunity from liability for the administration or use of “Covered Countermeasures” in response to COVID-19 ...
Did you know? The new Trade Marks (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 which came into effect on 19 June 2020 empowers the Registrar of Trade Marks to make the rules for implementing the long-awaited Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (the “Madrid Protocol”) in Hong Kong ...
In July, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) compiled a draft law on data protection and the protection of privacy in the context of electronic communication and telemedia (the “Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act” [Telekommunikations-Telemedien-Datenschutz-Gesetz],“TTDSG”) – which has not yet been officially published ...
The High Court has left the door open for a negligence claim to be pursued against a UK company on behalf of a shipyard worker who fell to his death dismantling an oil tanker at a Bangladeshi yard.1 The vessel had been sold to a buyer on terms requiring it to be scrapped in an environmentally sound manner and in accordance with good health and safety practices ...
With federal privacy legislation stalled and indefinitely delayed, states have moved forward to push an impressive number of privacy laws forward over the last several years. Some of these laws are still relatively obscure, but are being increasingly enforced by state regulators and through litigation ...
On 22 July 2020, data protection authorities from Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Switzerland and United Kingdom (together the Authorities), issued an open letter (Letter) on global privacy expectations of video teleconferencing companies (VTC companies)[1]. Why there is such a Letter? As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Authorities have witnessed an increasing use of VTC tools, both in social and business contexts ...
The Baden-Württemberg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (LfDI) has imposed a fine of €1,240,000 on the AOK Baden-Württemberg health insurance provider. The reason? Data processing errors related to prize draws it ran: the health insurance provider had not obtained the valid consent for data processing of prize draw entrants in 500 cases. An internal whistleblower notified the LfDI about the breach ...
A focus for Chinese trademark law and practice in recent years has been strengthening the fight against malicious trademarks ...
Thursday 16 July 2020 saw the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issue its decision on the validity of two international data transfer mechanisms - the “Privacy Shield” mechanism, which allowed for transfers between the EU and the US, and the Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) which are of more general application. Both of these mechanisms were confirmed by decisions of the European Commission ...
Today (16 July 2020), the ECJ handed down its long-awaited judgment on the validity of Standard Contractual Clauses in international data transfers (ECJ, judgment of 16 July 2020, case C-311/18). In a surprise move the Court of Justice declared the EU Commission's adequacy decision on the Privacy Shield - the agreement that allows data transfers to certain companies in the USA - to be invalid. On the other hand it confirmed the validity of the Standard Contractual Clauses ...
The European Commission (“EC”) is collecting data and feedback from stakeholders about the European Union’s (“EU”) current rules on packaging and packaging waste. Based on these insights, it will propose an amendment to the current rules that aim to ensure a properly functioning market for packaging recycling and diminishing packaging waste ...
UK and EU competition law provides that retailers must be free to determine their own resale prices. Actions by suppliers to restrict this freedom by dictating a fixed or minimum resale price are prohibited. The UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has vigorously enforced the law in this area, regularly pursuing investigations into and ultimately imposing fines on suppliers who engage in resale price maintenance ...