Grace Instrument Industries, LLC v. Chandler Instruments Company, LLC, Appeal No. 2021-2370 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 12, 2023) In an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s determination that one of a patent’s claim terms, “enlarged chamber,” is indefinite, and remanded for further proceedings ...
Operating expenses (“OpEx”) and common area maintenance fees (“CAM”) are two important items in any commercial lease, but they are often overlooked after the decision is made on how to split up these fees. Typically, operating expenses are calculated and allocated based on a gross, modified gross, or triple net basis, with the tenant being responsible for a percentage of CAM based on the percentage of the total property they occupy ...
Many government agencies set goals for their construction projects to be awarded to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE). The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) DBE certification program sets antidiscrimination regulations that states can implement for federal funding. The Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) is the certifying authority of DBEs (on behalf of the DOT) in Oregon ...
This briefing sets out the key requirements of PIPA and the steps that your organisation can take to prepare for its implementation. PIPA coming into force PIPA was enacted in 2016 to regulate the use of personal information in Bermuda by individuals, companies, public authorities and other organisations ...
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel recently released an advisory opinion[i] regarding Section 1461 of title 18 of the U.S. Code. In it, they write the “Comstock Act”[ii] does not prohibit the mailing of certain medications used to perform abortions where the sender does not believe the medications will be used unlawfully. This opinion comes in the wake of the U.S ...
On January 11, 2023 the SEC Division of Investment Management issued an additional Marketing Rule FAQ. The newly issued FAQ addresses gross and net performance requirements applicable to private fund case studies, single investments and/or groups of investments, i.e. extracted performance. Specifically, the Question provides as follows: Q. When an adviser displays the gross performance of one investment (e.g ...
Roger Royse Q&A: ESG, PE and IPO Prospects for Agtech in 2023 December 28, 2022 Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Roger Royse was featured in an AgFunderNews Q&A about environmental, social & governance (ESG), private equity, and initial public offering prospects for agtech in 2023. Below is an excerpt: AFN: Tell us a few really noteworthy investment trends you saw in 2022 ...
As we enter the new year, we also welcome the implementation of the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") Business Companies Act (the "Act") amendments which came into force on 1 January 2023. The amendments update several parts of the Act and continues to conform with best practice and international standards ...
Lost for many in the avalanche of news about the midterms, voters in five states went to the polls last month to vote on proposals allowing adult-use cannabis, often referred to as recreational cannabis. We won't bury the lede: two states, Maryland and Missouri, voted to allow adult-use cannabis, while three others — Arkansas and the Dakotas — voted down the proposals ...
January 10, 2023 By: Michael Flynn The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget has released the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda) reports on the actions administrative agencies plan to issue in the near and long term. Included is the CFPB’s regulatory agenda for 2023. The CFPB agenda may be found HERE ...
In Ultima Services Corporation v. U.S. Department of Agriculture et al., Case No. 2:20-CV-00041, Ultima Services Corporation filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (Greenville Division) challenging the constitutionality of the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program ...
Dionex Softron GmbH v. Agilent Techs., Inc., Appeal No. 21-2372 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 6, 2023) This week’s Case of the Week, the only precedential patent opinion issued by the Federal Circuit this week, focused primarily on the corroboration requirement for relevant dates of invention. The Court held there was sufficient evidence of a reduction to practice as of a given date, based primarily on corroboration of multiple witnesses, notwithstanding limited documentary evidence ...
In 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026 to increase the minimum wage for federal government contractors to $15 per hour. On November 23, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule implementing Executive Order 14026. The rule requires any federal contractor to pay employees a minimum hourly wage of $15 and overtime wages for work beyond 40 hours per week. This wage is subject to yearly increases determined by DOL ...
Part 1: Four reasons to slow down and four reasons to speed up the process Part 2: Slowing down the process (CA, US, EP, PCT) Part 3: Fast track (CA, US, EP, PCT) Part 1: Why slow down or speed up the process? Slowing down the process Why would anyone want to slow down the process when it already usually takes several years for a patent to be issued? Cash flow Uncertainty for competitors Possibility of changing the scope Possibility of filing a divisional application In some cases,
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a notice of a proposed rulemaking that would prohibit employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against all employees and would preempt state laws that otherwise allow these agreements. The proposed rule would prohibit any contractual term that functions to prevent a worker from seeking or accepting employment or operating a business, after leaving the employer ...
On December 22, 2022 the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (“Pennsylvania DHS”) issued a Medical Assistance Bulletin that will put 340B savings at risk in Pennsylvania. This bulletin intends to prohibit 340B Program covered entities and contract pharmacies from dispensing 340B medication to Pennsylvania Medicaid patients regardless of whether the patient is enrolled in fee-for-service or managed Medicaid ...
On July 9, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order requesting that agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), issue rules banning employers from entering non-compete agreements with employees. Following that request, on January 5, 2023, the FTC announced it is proposing sweeping new regulations that would bar employers from entering into or enforcing non-compete agreements with employees that prevent an employee from working with a competitor ...
The recent judgment issued by the Supreme Court of Bermuda in the case of In the Matter of the AB Settlement [2022] SC (Bda) 92 Civ provides very helpful authority on the question of whether trust restructurings under Bermuda statute constitute resettlements. The case concerned a substantial English law trust, referred to in the judgment as the AB Settlement ...
We summarize here what we believe are the top 5 Alabama tax cases decided in the past year that would interest our CPA readers. Not surprisingly, almost all are Alabama Tax Tribunal rulings, so in those instances we deleted that reference and simply list the date of the latest ruling. If you’d like a copy of or have a question about any of these rulings, please email one of us ...
Whether a court must defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation of a statute has recently become a hot-button topic in a wide variety of legal circles ranging from political campaigns to cases heard before the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Ohio has now joined with its recent decision in TWISM Ents., L.L.C. v. State Bd ...
If your organization operates or could be sued in New York, there has been recent activity on the legal and regulatory risk landscape that risk professionals should be prepared for. New York’s newly-enacted Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Requirements legislation opens the door for defendants to request that organizations disclose the details of their commercial insurance programs that may apply to a judgment in the case ...
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule[1] to prohibit employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against former employees, contractors, and other workers. The proposed rule defines “non-compete clause” broadly as “a contractual term between an employer and a worker that prevents the worker from seeking or accepting employment with a person, or operating a business, after the conclusion of the worker’s employment ...
