Many companies have a keen interest in recycling and upcycling old products for resale, both for environmental and promotional purposes. But when those products contain third-party intellectual property, there can be trademark and copyright concerns. Dinsmore intellectual property partner Karen Gaunt wrote about this topic for Best Lawyers' Women in Law issue, out this month. Gaunt herself has been named a Best Lawyer multiple times since 2013. An excerpt of the article is below ...
Arbitration provisions are becoming more common in construction contracts, but a recent court decision reveals that enforcing these provisions requires more than just placing them in a contract. Contractors, especially those seeking to arbitrate claims involving multiple property owners or an entire homeowner or condominium association, must sufficiently establish that enough of the property owners agreed to arbitrate their claims. Mattamy Florida LLC .v ...
Florida’s construction lien laws require a contractor to serve a contractor’s final payment affidavit “at least five days” before filing a lawsuit to enforce the lien. A general contractor recently had its lien rights reinstated when a court clarified how the number of days between the service of the affidavit and the filing of the lawsuit should be calculated and reversed a dismissal of the contractor’s lawsuit ...
Much recent attention has been on Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis’ signing of extensive property insurance law changes in Florida. But on May 26, the governor also signed Senate Bill 4. While SB 4 primarily deals with condominium inspections and safety, the bill also changes part of the state law that enacts and governs Florida’s Building Code and changes the amount of a roof that must be brought up to current codes in the event of damage and repair ...
New Florida Statute Changes Building Code Requirements for Roof Repairs In May, Florida’s legislature met for a special session to address issues with property insurance claims and rates within the state ...
Oklahoma joins Florida in passing its own version of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) called the “Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022.” The legislation is set to take effect on Nov. 1, 2022. The Telephone Solicitation Act (TSA) applies to telemarketing calls using an “automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called ...
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has revolutionized transaction of data, assets, and value, including the proliferation of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. In order to leverage this emerging and revolutionary technology, state governments across the United States are looking to clarify how DLT use cases, specifically blockchains and their various sub-use cases, are treated under state law. With the adoption of HB 177.05, Ohio has joined the fray ...
After months spent collaborating on a loan application and waiting for HUD’s underwriters to judge its merits, the lender and borrower are thrilled to receive the HUD firm commitment, a major milestone on the path to closing. The parties lock the interest rate, draft loan documents, fine-tune title and survey, and assemble the pre-closing submission to HUD ...
On May 24, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an expansion of premium processing service to two additional categories of Form I-140 immigrant petitions. This is part of a broader push by USCIS to reduce backlogs, increase efficiency, and speed up decisions on certain previously filed Form I-140 immigrant petitions ...
Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio House Bill 81 on June 16, 2021, codifying a significant change regarding eligibility for temporary total disability benefits (TTD) under Ohio Revised Code §4123.56(F). By enacting R.C. §4123.56(F), the legislature intended to leave behind decades of case law concerning the doctrine of voluntary abandonment ...
Two recent Supreme Court decisions concerning the First Amendment affect when the government can regulate speech. Dinsmore's Justin Burns and Brady Wilson wrote about the cases for Law360 Expert Analysis. An excerpt is below and the full PDF is above. Recent headlines from the U.S. Supreme Court focus on leaks, but City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertisements of Austin and Shurtleff v. City of Boston, two recent First Amendment decisions, are also worth noting ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in a 2-1 opinion that Congress’ delegation of legislative power to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) is unconstitutional because it fails to “provide an intelligible principle by which the SEC would exercise the delegated power.” The Fifth Circuit has called into question the legitimacy of the majority of the SEC’s enforcement operation, which occurs in front of administrative law judges (ALJs) ...
On May 4, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a Temporary Final Rule (TFR) that increases the automatic extension period for certain Employment Authorization Document (EAD) categories up to 540 days, effective immediately and valid through Oct. 15, 2025. Historically, certain EAD categories were only eligible for an extension up to 180 days. The TFR will help avoid employment gaps for foreign nationals with pending EAD applications ...
Dinsmore labor and employment partner Thaddeus Harrell was published this week by Claims and Litigation Management (CLM) on the topic of navigating a fully in-office, remote or hybrid workforce and the legal considerations that come with each option. An excerpt is below ...
On Jan. 1, 2023, comprehensive tax legislation will take effect in Kentucky, potentially reducing Kentucky’s personal income tax in an effort to promote economic growth. To offset revenue losses, the legislation broadens the sales and use tax base and imposes new taxes and fees on electric vehicles, ride sharing and car rental services. In the near term, businesses must consider whether they must now collect and remit taxes and the effect of these new taxes on existing contracts ...
On March 30, 2022 the Division of Examinations of the United States Securities & Exchange Commission published the 2022 Examination Priorities. As in other years, the 2022 Examination Priorities document provides certain data regarding the scope of the examination program and the growth of the investment adviser community ...
On April 26, 2022 the Division of Examinations of the United States Securities & Exchange Commission published a Risk Alert detailing investment adviser deficiencies related to Section 204A of the Advisers Act and Rule 204A-1 under the Advisers Act ...
On Nov. 30, 2020 the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announced that its membership voted to adopt a model rule to set parameters by which NASAA members could implement continuing education programs for investment adviser representatives (IARs) in their jurisdictions. Following is a summary of the provisions of the model rule ...
The Digital Commodity Exchange Act of 2022(DCEA), introduced by Republican representatives Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and Tom Emmer of Minnesota, along with Democratic representatives Darren Soto of Florida and Ro Khanna of California, would create a definition for “digital commodity” and allow the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee companies issuing or letting people trade certain tokens, while having the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 3, 2022 the near doubling of the unit responsible for protecting investors in crypto markets and from cyber-related threats by allocating 20 additional positions to that team. The rebranded Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (formerly known as the Cyber Unit) (CACU), which is part of the Division of Enforcement, will now number 50 full-time professionals. “The U.S ...
On March 31, 2022, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Staff) issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121). SAB 121 applies to businesses that provide an operating platform that allows users to transact in crypto-assets coupled with a service to safeguard the platform users’ crypto-assets, including maintaining the cryptographic key information necessary to access the crypto-assets, crypto-asset trading platforms ...
Under a new Ohio law, school boards, governmental bodies, and other third parties will be prohibited from filing complaints to increase the value of others’ Ohio real property for tax purposes, except under certain limited conditions. Am. Sub. H.B. 126 is expected to largely eliminate the practice of retroactive tax increases as a result of complaints filed based on a sale in the year currently subject to appeal ...
Under a new bill adopted by the Ohio General Assembly, school boards, governmental bodies, and other third parties will be prohibited from filing complaints to increase the value of others’ Ohio real property for tax purposes, except under certain limited conditions. Am. Sub. H.B. 126 is expected to largely eliminate the practice of retroactive tax increases as a result of complaints filed based on a sale in the year currently subject to appeal. On its effective date, Am. Sub ...
Overview The general counsel is requesting the NLRB find captive audience meetings to constitute an unfair labor practice if the employer fails to provide its employees with assurances against threat of discipline, discharge or other reprisal. The general counsel did not direct the regions to begin issuing administrative complaints against employers who require employees to attend captive audience meetings at this time ...
On March 28, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of three investigations and one matter before an Administrative Law Judge related to compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule ...
