On November 12, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court extended corporate attorney-client privilege protection to appropriate ex parte communications between defendant hospitals and their non-employee agents. The court’s decision in Hermanson v. MultiCare Health Sys., Inc ...
With many medical practices and healthcare practitioners moving to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, questions abound on legal requirements, privacy, and the future of healthcare. Schwabe’s Healthcare team has taken a closer look at the legal issues surrounding the rise of telemedicine during the pandemic and the implications for our healthcare future in the four articles below ...
By resolution adopted on October 7, 2020, the state of emergency has been extended until January 31, 2021 ...
A registered trademark in the British Virgin Islands is transmissible in the same way as other personal or moveable property. Transmission can be completed by assignment, testamentary disposition, or operation of law. When a trademark is assigned, the owner’s right, title, and interest with respect to the trademark is transferred to the new owner ...
Trademark owners with registrations in EU where the UK is designated should soon receive notification for treatment of registrations and applications following the Brexit transition period. The Brexit transitional period, during which EU laws and rights have continued in force in the UK, will end on December 31, 2020. Thereafter, EU Trade Mark and Design applications and registrations (and designations of the EU) will only cover the remaining 27 EU member states ...
On November 12, 2020, just one day after the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) published its recommendations on additional measures for data transfers to third countries (Recommendation 01/2020), the European Commission published a draft of the long-awaited updated Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”). Under Art. 46 GDPR, these can serve as the basis for data transfers to third countries without an adequacy decision ...
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy (Board) recently issued updated guidance detailing certain conduct pharmacists and other regulated personnel (Licensees) must report to the Board ...
Law on the Management of Commercial Gambling, Royal Kram NS/RKM/1120/031 dated 14 November 2020 Overview On 14 November 2020, the Law on the Management of Commercial Gambling (“Gambling Law”), the first comprehensive legislation to regulate casinos and commercial gambling centers in Cambodia, was promulgated ...
The legal status of CBD, a naturally occurring compound found in the cannabis plant, is murky. Certain Member States are more restrictive about it than others. The Court of Justice of the EU has very recently provided clarification in the context of a preliminary ruling (case C-663/18 of 19 November 2020). This case revolves around CBD’s ban in France, after it had been imported from the Czech Republic where it was lawfully produced ...
On 21 August 2020, the HKIMR, the research arm of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance, released its second report, entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Banking: The Changing Landscape in Compliance and Supervision”. The report is intended as a starting point for understanding the broad implications of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) adoption in the banking industry, as well as in relation to compliance and supervision ...
The HKMA has developed a two-year roadmap to promote Regtech adoption in the Hong Kong banking sector (“Roadmap”), as set out in a White Paper entitled “Transforming Risk Management and Compliance: Harnessing the Power of Regtech” (“White Paper”). The White Paper presents the case for wider adoption of Regtech in Hong Kong, outlining a series of actions that the HKMA will take, or consider taking, to accelerate its adoption ...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded the definition of close contact to now evaluate exposure cumulatively over a 24-hour period such that “15 cumulative minutes of exposure at a distance of 6 feet or less can be used as an operational definition for contact investigation,”[1] Because the newly expanded definition is not limited, it impacts many different industries (inclu
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular last year (the Circular) in recognition of the increasing use of electronic data storage (cloud storage) for record keeping purposes. The Circular was intended to provide licensed corporations with greater flexibility in keeping regulatory records with electronic data service providers (EDSPs), as well as to clarify their general obligations in relation to electronic data ...
With the Universal Community Testing Programme for COVID-19 detection by the Hong Kong Government and temperature screening in the workplace, the collection and use of biometric data (such as DNA samples, fingerprints and facial images) have raised concerns among the public. In August 2020, the Privacy Commissioner (PC) has updated its guidance note on how data users should collect and use biometric data in compliance with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Guidance Note) ...
As concern over cybersecurity continues to grow,[1] defense contractors have been waiting for the Department of Defense (DoD) to roll out its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. That rollout has occurred, with DoD’s recently published interim rule Assessing Contractor Implementation of Cybersecurity Requirements (DFARS Case 2019-D041)[2] (“Interim Rule”), effective Nov. 30, 2020, and providing for a five-year phase-in of CMMC ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union delivers judgments regarding the concept of “communication to the public” faster than legal scholars can read and dissect them. While we are eagerly awaiting the Court’s analysis of different types of hyperlinking, it has taken less than two months to follow Advocate General Hogan’s opinion regarding the emailing of evidence containing copyrighted works to a court in legal proceedings ...
The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) sees the decision as a success: On November 11, 2020, the District Court of Bonn reduced the fine imposed on 1&1 Telekom GmbH for a data protection breach from an original EUR 9.55 million to EUR 990,000.00, thereby fundamentally calling into question the fine practices of the German supervisory authorities ...
On November 16, 2020, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert addressing the fraud and abuse risks of speaker programs that are commonplace in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries ...
On November 12, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued to block the acquisition of two Memphis-area hospitals by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. Eleven months earlier, on December 12, 2019, Methodist entered into an agreement with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corporation to purchase Saint Francis-Memphis and St. Francis-Bartlett (along with their associated physician practices, urgent care centers, and other ancillary care providers) for $350 million ...
The debt collection restrictions and requirements in the FDCPA, which was enacted in 1977, have failed to keep up with or even contemplate modern technologies. In particular, as methods and forms of communication have evolved, the industry has had little guidance on how it can utilize newer communication channels such as emails, text messages, or social media. In many cases, the industry has had to grapple with different and often conflicting court interpretations ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Ohio Department of Health’s July 23, 2020 Order regarding facial covering mandates has been amended in light of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Ohio. The order became effective today, Nov. 16, 2020. See the order here. This new order includes the following additional mandates for retail stores (enterprises offering goods to the public) only. 1. Each business will be required to post at all public entrances to the store: A. A face covering requirement sign; B ...
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 ...
A minority of states have enacted statutes and taken other action to protect business owners from claims by persons who allegedly were infected by COVID-19 on their premises.1 The purpose of this article is to compare these statutes and discuss some of the differences between them. This article addresses statutes in effect as of October 27, 2020. The article does not address pending legislation ...
