Some reports claim that as many as one third of people around the world are subject to some degree of lockdown to stem the coronavirus (COVID-19) rate of infection. As a result, businesses everywhere are facing unprecedented circumstances that most of us would agree could never have been imagined, and certainly not anticipated, in negotiating a contract ...
What are we to make of the comedian who changed his name to that of a well-known brand? A British comedian by the name of Joe Lycett recently changed his name to Hugo Boss – he did this formally, as in by deed poll. Hugo Boss is, of course, a very well-known fashion brand. The company, which was formed in Germany in 1924 and named after its founder, made uniforms for the German army during World War 2 but changed its focus, somewhat, in the post-war years ...
On 1 April 2020, the Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) granted an appeal against an order of Acting Justice Kose in the Cape Town High Court in favour of The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) (Bergh and Others v The Agricultural Research Council (Case no 93/2019) [2020] ZASCA 30). The appeal was against an order interdicting the appellants from infringing the ARC’s copyright in the BeefPro computer program and from unlawfully competing with the ARC ...
Ten years ago, Uganda’s National Disaster Preparedness and Management Policy predicted that “an influenza pandemic may occur when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity. With the increase in global transport, as well as urbanization and overcrowded conditions in some areas, epidemics due to a new influenza virus are likely to take hold around the world, and become a pandemic faster than before” ...
On 6 April 2020, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“ICASA”) published the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) COVID-19 National Disaster Regulations (the "Regulations"). The stated purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe the minimum standards to which all licensee (electronic communication services and broadcasting services) must adhere for the duration of the National State of Disaster ...
With South Africa currently under a nationwide lockdown, practical challenges arise for parties to existing (or new) commercial transactions that are scheduled to “close” during this period. While physical closings are (generally) not currently possible, depending on the type of transaction and the closing deliverables involved, this challenge need not delay closing ...
Introduction I have not taken the time to research and, hence, cannot speak knowledgeably about the economic impact of government measures taken to defeat the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, and the legal consequences thereof ...
Directions pertaining to the communications sector were issued on 26 March 2020 by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies (the "Minister"), to ensure the smooth operations of the electronic communications sector – as essential services – during the national state of disaster period. You can read our previous article relating to the Directionshere ...
In order to avoid the shortage of antiseptic and disinfectant products for external use, the Colombian Ministry of Health issued Resolution 520 of March 28, 2020 in order to establish new requirements for the manufacture of the above-mentioned products within the Colombian territory ...
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director may modify certain patent and trademark-related deadlines where the COVID-19 outbreak has either prejudiced applicants’ rights or interfered with the filing of a document or fee payment. The Acting Register of the Copyright Office is also granted expanded authority under the CARES Act for modifying certain copyright-related deadlines ...
On April 6, 2020, Law No. 21,227 came into force, allowing access to unemployment insurance benefits under Law No. 19,728, in exceptional circumstances. This law, in its Article 14, Title III "Final Provisions", provides for a new criminal offense consisting of fraudulently obtaining supplements, benefits and / or profits due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19 ...
Below is a summary of key new measures, as well as clarifications on previous measures we reported on, that have been implemented by various UAE authorities since 5 April 2020 and the time of this inBrief, 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 April 2020 ...
Since the publication of our legal update on COVID-19 Legal Challenges for Pharmaceutical Companies on 31 March 2020, new important measures were adopted or announced on both national and EU level ...
The pledge of equity interests of a privately held company as collateral is a common occurrence in a wide variety of financing structures. What is not as common perhaps is for secured creditors to analyze, at the initial stages of a transaction, the road maps that may serve to mitigate any meaningful delays or diminution in the value of such collateral in a foreclosure scenario ...
Effective on April 6, 2020, an Order was published to establish the technical guidelines (the “Technical Guidelines”) for the activities described in Article 1, Section II, sub-sections (c) and (e) of the order that adopted extraordinary measures to deal with the health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus” (the “Order”). (We published an article on the Order, which may be foundhere ...
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) offers relief to businesses affected by COVID-19 through various programs, including forgivable loans and federal income tax credits. However, the CARES Act prevents businesses from claiming certain benefits that are considered duplicative ...
Guarantees for bank loans and loan interest bonifications were introduced as afinancial aid to small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) to be provided by the state under Act on certain extraordinary measures in the area of finance in relation to the spread of dangerous contagious human disease COVID-19 that was adopted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 2 April 2020 (the “Act”) ...
This supplements our inBrief dated 3 April 2020, which reported on measures implemented by the UAE authorities in response to COVID-19 up to 9:00 a.m. that day. Many new measures have been introduced since then. We now report on new measures taken up to 9:00 a.m. on Monday 6 April 2020 ...
By Law 129 of 17 March 2020 (hereinafter, the “Law”) the Republic of Panama established the regulatory framework for a restricted database ...
The new measures adopted by the European Commission Last Friday, the European Commission (“Commission”) has adopted an amendment to existing State aid rules to widen the perimeter of the national measures which can be authorized based on the exceptional legal framework to cope with the current crisis. a. In particular, the Commission considered the following measures:a. More support for research and development related to the current health crisis ...
A recent report published by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (“CEA”) on drug pricing in the United States of America has put the cost of medicine and the access thereto by the poor, firmly back in the spotlight, and on a global scale. In the CEA report, President Donald Trump’s administration argues that the USA pays higher prices for pharmaceuticals because other developed countries have systems in place to actively force down drug pricing ...
A fierce fight for the leadership of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (”WIPO”) reflects an ever-growing recognition of the importance of IP. The US has seemingly secured a major victory in its quest to prevent a Chinese official from becoming the director general of WIPO. It has achieved this by backing a candidate from Singapore, Daren Tang, the head of the Singapore Intellectual Property Office ...
