The United States Trademark Office formally announced it will raise the vast majority of its trademark filings fees and implement some new fees as of Jan. 1, 2021. These higher costs will impact every aspect of trademark prosecution, including appeal, cancellation and opposition proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Trademark owners would be wise to take a look at their upcoming deadlines and potentially take action on them before the end of the year ...
This article has been published in PLI Chronicle. The market for consumer products derived from cannabis and its components, including cannabidiol (CBD), is exploding. U.S. sales of CBD products is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2024, up from just $1.9 billion in 2018. TheCBD market is expected to develop across diverse industries such as cosmetics and skin care, health products, food and beverage, pet products, and pharmaceuticals ...
On Nov. 9, 2020 the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) issued a risk alert detailing its series of examinations of investment advisers operating from numerous branch offices and with operations geographically disbursed from the adviser’s main office. This examination initiative focused on the compliance and supervisory practices relating to advisory personnel working within the advisers’ branch offices ...
The new issue of Legal Insight magazine includes a timely article by Anastasia Kayukova, Senior Associate at ALRUD Law Firm, and Anastasia Sidorenko, Junior Associate at ALRUD Law Firm. It is dedicated to the difficulties of determining the criteria, by which the FAS of Russia (Federal Antimonopoly Service) assesses the need to approve transactions related to the acquisition of “de facto” control rights ...
The Copyright Office of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has invited comments and suggestions to amend the Copyright Act before November 30, 2020. Mid last year, the DPIIT proposed a set of amendments to the Indian Copyright Rules. While these amendments sought to increase transparency and provide clarity for right holders, many other essential modifications were overlooked ...
The Government proposes to consult the Panel of Financial Affairs of the Legislative Council on the introduction of a statutory corporate rescue procedure and insolvent trading provisions to the Legislative Council in the first quarter of 2021. The Companies (Corporate Rescue) Bill was originally introduced in 2000, but was never enacted and has since lapsed ...
Proposition 19, which was marketed as a provision to benefit homeowners who are over 55, the disabled, and wildfire/disaster victims, actually contained major property tax increases. The increased property taxes will be paid by children and grandchildren that receive California real estate (primary residences and all other properties) from their parents and grandparents ...
On Nov. 3, 2020, California voters approved Proposition 24, marking a significant shift in the U.S. privacy landscape. Proposition 24 enacted the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA),[1] a major expansion of the existing California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which many businesses continue to grapple with since becoming effective in January 2020. Most notably, the CPRA establishes a stand-alone privacy regulator, the first U.S. state to do so ...
On November 16, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) issued Special Fraud Alert: Speaker Programs (Fraud Alert) to “highlight the fraud and abuse risks associated with the offer, payment, solicitation, or receipt of remuneration relating to speaker programs by pharmaceutical and medical device companies ...
The Government of India has been very active in putting in place the necessary framework to implement the objectives of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ or a program of self-reliance announced by the Government of India intends to focus on the five key pillars of economy, infrastructure, system, vibrant demography, and demand ...
What will UK data protection look like after Brexit 2.0 on 31 December 2020? Regime 1: the 'UK GDPR': the UK's new bespoke version together with the Data Protection Act 2018 The UK GDPR will be the UK data protection regime based on the 'EU GDPR' (see below) ...
The HHS Office for the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology issued an interim final rule on October 29, 2020, extending the compliance date for the information blocking rule under the 21st Century Cures Act to April 5, 2021 ...
On June 5, 2020 the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-43 (the “Notice”) proposing two alternative methods to satisfy tax capital account reporting requirements as the only methods for reporting partner’s capital accounts under the tax basis method for taxable years that end on or after December 31, 2020 ...
While public attention focused on the federal and state elections, Michigan voters made an important decision—they adopted Proposal 20-2, which amended Michigan’s Constitution to extend its protection from unreasonable searches and seizures to electronic data and communications ...
Strap: In a recent case of Samsung Heavy Industries, the Indian Supreme Court held that the Project Office of the company cannot be termed as PE under the provisions of India-Korea Tax Treaty as it is solely carrying out activities of an auxiliary nature ...
The 2020 election in California as pertains to national politics was never in doubt, but despite being a deeply blue state, Californians continued to show their divide on taxing businesses and making major changes to the statewide tax code. Several ballot initiatives, both at the state and municipal level, would have radically altered how businesses and executives are taxed ...
On November 2, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to harmonize, simplify, and improve the current tangled framework for exempt securities offerings, a move intended to promote capital formation and expand investment opportunities while preserving or improving important investor protections. Under SEC requirements, all securities offerings must be either registered with the SEC or qualify for an exemption from registration ...
On November 9, 2020, the federal government announced a further temporary extension to permitted layoff periods for federally regulated private-sector employees. Background In June of 2020, the federal government extended the time periods for layoffs under the Canada Labour Standards Regulations to allow federally regulated private-sector employers more time to recall laid-off employees ...
After months of predictions of a possible Democratic wave,Tuesday’s election delivered mixed results. Joe Biden appears poised to narrowly defeat President Trump after one of the most contentious election cycles in recent memory. Republicans are favored to retain their Senate majority despite having to defend twice as many seats as their Democratic counterparts ...
In the recent decision in Agracity Ltd. v. The Queen1, the Tax Court of Canada (the “Court”) endorsed the Canadian tax consequences of business transactions between a Canadian corporation (“Agracity”) and its Barbados affiliate (“NewAgco-Barbados”) within a group of companies operating in the agrochemical industry (the “Group”) ...
While a few legislative races are still being tabulated, Democrats maintained their supermajority status in both the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate in this election cycle. Current projections, that are subject to change pending mail-in ballots, are for a Democrat supermajority of 72-46 in the House and 41-18 in the Senate. This was not an unexpected outcome, though most pre-election predictions had the Democrats achieving an even wider gap in the Legislature ...
Effective Nov. 9, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) amendments to “modernize the description of business, legal proceedings, and risk factor disclosures” required under Regulation S-K take effect. These amendments largely follow the proposed amendments, dated Aug. 8, 2019,[1] with some clarifications. The intent of the amendments is to improve the disclosure regime, which has not had a major overhaul in over thirty years ...
