Few medical issues are as significant to an employee and an employer as major back surgery. The procedure incapacitates the injured worker for months and leaves the employer short staffed while the employee recovers. Additionally, these surgeries often do not result in the expected outcome, which leads to further impairment and expense ...
The D.C. Circuit recently rejected a qui tam relator’s attempt to dodge the FCA’s first-to-file bar by amending his complaint. United States ex rel. Shea v. Cellco P’ship, 863 F.3d 923 (D.C. Cir. 2017). The panel’s correct interpretation of the first-to-file bar stymies relators’ ability to keep copycat FCA suits in court. The relator, a telecommunications industry consultant, filed a qui tam suit against Verizon Communications, Inc. in 2007 ...
In Denmark, SKAT charges VAT on radio and TV licence fees. Households pay a licence fee to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), which then pays the VAT amount to SKAT. The VAT amount makes up 20 per cent of the total licence fee.Last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that it was unlawful to charge VAT on licence fees in a case concerning Czech radio licence fees ...
Today, 7 August 2017, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“ICASA”) published a notice stating its intention to amend the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations.Of particular interest is the insertion of Regulation 8B, which introduces “out-of-bundle billing practices” and the “expiry of data practices”. The regulations intend to govern the validity period and roll-over of data ...
California defamation law continues to evolve as the courts synthesize well-settled legal principles with ever-changing technological realities. On July 21, 2017, California’s First District Court of Appeal issued a published opinion in ZL Technologies v. Does 1-7 (July 21, 2017) 2017 DJ DAR 6999 ...
According to the advocate general’s opinions in C-434/15 Elite Taxi and C-320/16 Uber France, Uber does not provide information society services, but local transport services which may be regulated by EU member states. It has been more than ayear since we signalled that the Court of Justice of the European Union would need to resolve the legal classification of the services provided by Uber ...
Medical Cannabis approvals in the City have been the subject of intense negotiations, hearings, and appeals in the last two months. First, our law firm assisted the Apothecarium - Sunset (an additional location in the Sunset District for the medical cannabis dispensary called The Apothecarium currently near the Castro), in obtaining an approval at the Planning Commission ...
The adoption of the Federal Law No 156-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” entered into force October 1, 2017 (hereinafter the “Federal Law”). 1 ...
We previously reported that on March 30, 2017, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the executive directors of Ohio’s health care licensing agencies announced new standards for prescribing opiates for acute pain ...
It has been four months since the changes to 42 CFR Part 2, the confidentiality regulations that apply to all substance abuse treatment records, became effective. Ensure your policies and forms have been updated. The finalized changes to 42 CFR Part 2 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), took affect March 21, 2017 ...
We would like to inform you of the recent developments of Russian cybersecurity legislation. The draft law “On Security of Critical Information Infrastructure” has passed the third (final) reading at the Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament and has been sent to the Upper Chamber for final approval. Afterwards Russian President will likely sign the document ...
On January 1, 2019, local agencies will be required to comply with new requirements for posting agendas on their websites (AB 2257). The California Brown Act requires that any local agency must post an agenda 72 hours in advance of a regular meeting. If an agency has a website, then the agency is required to post the agenda on their website ...
The Digital Economy Act 2017 introduces a new electronic communications code, intended to facilitate widespread connectivity and address some of the critical issues that currently beset the telecoms industry. The current electronic communications code was issued in 1984 and it was designed to facilitate the installation and maintenance of fixed line communications networks ...
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Matal v. Tam,1 a high-profile dispute implicating NFL football, Portland dance-rock, and the Lanham Act’s disparagement clause. In its eagerly anticipated decision, the Court, voting 8-0, struck down the Lanham Act’s prohibition on disparaging trademarks as facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment ...
In recent months, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Thomas, the Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen Inc. et al., No 15-1039, considering two critical questions in the biosimilar approval mechanisms adopted in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA” or “Biosimilars Act”) ...
View the PDF version of the June 2017 IP Beacon. Supreme Court Ruling Reigns in Patent Infringement Forum ShoppingBy Brian Kwok and Jason W. Whitney On Monday, May 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, No. 16-341 unanimously overruled a longstanding Federal Circuit decision that allowed patent infringement suits to be filed in nearly any U.S. state or jurisdiction ...
In recent months, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved the Protection of Privacy Regulations (Information Security) 5777-2017 (hereinafter: the "Regulations"). The Regulations mark a landmark change in the field of information security in Israel and they impose substantial obligations on database owners ...
Long-term care (LTC) facilities received a boost last week when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reversed its position regarding the use of arbitration agreements in this setting. On June 8, 2017, CMS published a proposed rule amending LTC facilities’ conditions of participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to remove prohibitions on binding pre-dispute arbitration agreements ...
“It is a treasured value in humanity … that no parent would want her child to grow up thinking that she (the child was) a mistake." - Justice Choo Han Teck In 2010, a Chinese woman, trying to conceive a child with her Caucasian husband, underwent an in vitro fertilisation (“IVF”) procedure at a clinic. Like the previous time she bore a child through IVF at that clinic in 2006, no third party’s gametes were meant to be used ...
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that United States patent rights are exhausted by the sale of a product by the patentee or its licensee “regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale.” Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc., No. 15 1189, slip op. at 2 (U.S. May 30, 2017). In so doing, the Court reversed the Federal Circuit’s February 2016, en banc decision ...
In recent years, company director David Topkins was prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice for conspiring with third-party sellers to fix the prices of posters, prints and framed art on Amazon Marketplace. Amazon Marketplace is an online e-commerce marketplace for third-party sellers, where the sellers control all pricing and shipping decisions on products sold ...
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, No. 16-341 (May 22, 2017) unanimously overruled a longstanding Federal Circuit decision that allowed patent infringement suits to be filed nearly anywhere, even in venues where accused infringers sold no more than a few allegedly infringing products ...
On May 4, 2017, the en banc Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., Appeal 2015-1944 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 16, 2016) to consider whether the findings of the Patent Trial & Appeals Board (“PTAB”) regarding 35 U.S.C. § 315(b), which governs the timeliness of filing a petition for inter partes review (“IPR”), are subject to judicial review on appeal ...
Disruption. Possibly the most overused word in today's global lexicon, it refers to the upheaval that is created when a new business (these days, usually founded by a smart alec entrepreneur) uproots an established method of delivering a product or service. Think Spotify, a music-streaming business that has sounded the death knell of CDs. It has, as its most vocal opponent, pop star Taylor Swift, who felt that it did not adequately value her art ...
