The turmoil within the Croatian retail company Agrokor, which owns Mercator, the largest Slovenian retailer, caused a significant stir in the Slovenian public, with the suppliers and especially in politics ...
On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen Inc. et al., a landmark case that many hope will provide clarity and guidance for consumers and the pharmaceutical industry on the regulatory approval pathway for biosimilar drugs under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA” or “Biosimilars Act”) ...
EnerDry holds numerous patents based on inventions by its founder and CEO Arne Sloth Jensen, including European Patent EP 1 070 223 B1. This patent relates to steam dryers with a specific type of cyclone, which substantially improves the capacity and efficiency of steam dryers ...
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 ...
It seems absurd that South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) should be called on to decide what the word “between” means. But that’s exactly what happened in the recent patent case of Orica Mining Services v Elbroc Mining Products. In the process, the SCA very clearly opted for a purposive interpretation of patent claims. The two parties involved, Orica and Elbroc, supply goods to the mining industry ...
The Department of State (“DOS”) published in the Federal Register a Notice to implement the presidential initiative for extreme vetting of visa applicants. Emergency review of the DOS proposal has been requested from the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”). The DOS has requested approval. If granted, the emergency approval would be valid for 180 days, although permanent approval could still be sought ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 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 ...
“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 ...
A unanimous Supreme Court held on June 5, 2017, that the SEC’s ability to recover funds through disgorgement is subject to a five-year statute of limitations. The SEC routinely seeks disgorgement as an equitable remedy in actions alleging securities law violations and asserted that disgorgement was not a penalty subject to the five year statute of limitations under 28 U.S.C. § 2462 ...
Amongst the numerous topics covered by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has decided to provide further guidance on the requirements regarding product governance through its guidelines dated 2 June 2017 which focus on the target market assessment by manufacturers and distributors of financial products ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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”) ...
Earlier this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) reached an important decision in the case Medisanus d.o.o. v General Hospital Murska Sobota (C-296/15) concerning public procurement procedures ...
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have issued statements of non-objection to the revised draft RTS under the PRIIPs Regulation which were endorsed last month by the European Commission. Finally, the long-awaited level 2 measures have been agreed on and further guidance on level 3 as well as level 4 by the ESAs and the European Commission is expected in the near future ...
Prior to imposing, extending, or increasing any tax, a public agency must submit the tax to a vote of the electorate. However, public agencies need no such approval to impose certain types of fees. In Jacks v. City of Santa Barbara, the Supreme Court considered whether and when municipal franchise fees—fees charged to utilities and others for the use of public rights of way—constitute taxes requiring voter approval ...
The purpose of this article is to highlight the principal changes to the rules and procedures governing national public procurements in Argentina, introduced by Decree 1030/2016. The new Regulation does not introduce substantial changes to its predecessor, although it does include some relevant modifications. Introduction In September 2016, the government of Argentina modified some of the rules and procedures governing national public procurement ...
Earlier this year, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg published the new law on the renewal of aid schemes for research, development and innovation (hereafter, the “RDI”) and on the missions of the national Agency for the promotion of innovation and research. This law amends the Law on the promotion of research, development and innovation.This reformed law aims at exploiting in Luxembourg all the potential offered by the EU rules related to State aid to RDI ...
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court held in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., that the three-year time limit in the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose that is not subject to equitable tolling. This means that shareholders will not be able to rely on the filing of a proposed class action lawsuit to suspend the running of a statute of repose on their individual claims ...
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 ...
