On Saturday, April 4, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a business review letter to a number of providers of Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) and pharmaceutical products, stating that the DOJ “presently does not intend to challenge” their efforts to expedite and increase manufacturing, sourcing, and distribution of PPE and medications in connection with Project Airbridge ...
The Philippine Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has issued an opinion to the effect that the exploration, development and utilization (“EDU”) of solar, wind, hydro and ocean or tidal energy sources is not subject to the forty percent (40%) foreign equity limitation under Article XII, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution ...
Later this month, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division will end its oversight of the Microsoft consent decree, marking the end of the landmark antitrust case that began more than a decade ago. The lawsuit was filed in May 1998, charging Microsoft with violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act by engaging in anticompetitive and exclusionary practices designed to maintain its monopoly in personal computer operating systems and to extend that monopoly to Internet browsing software ...
On the heels of the DOJ Criminal Division’s revisions to itsCorporate Enforcement Policyto encourage cooperation, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch has issued its owncooperation guidelinesthat identify a non-exhaustive list of types of cooperation that may entitle entities or individuals to cooperation credit ...
In the last quarter of 2018, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter ending what had become known as the “80/20 rule” for tipped employees. The new rule, which eases restrictions on an employer’s application of the tip credit, is a reissuance of a 2009 opinion letter that had been supplanted by contrary guidance since 2011 ...
The much awaited revised new regulations governing who qualifies for the FLSA white collar exemption has finally been revealed by the Department of Labor. It did so on March 8 by publishing anNPRM(“Notice of Proposed Rule Making”). In December of 2016, a Texas federal court entered a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of new regulations which would have dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempting most white collar employees from overtime ...
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued final regulations, effective January 14, 2010, that (1) clarify that the contribution timing rules apply to plan loan repayments, and (2) provide a safe harbor for depositing participant contributions (including loan repayments) to employee benefit plans with fewer than 100 participants on the first day of the plan year ...
On Oct. 29, 2021, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule regarding “dual jobs” for tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The final rule, which becomes effective on Dec. 28, 2021, withdraws a prior final rule from 2020 regarding dual jobs and amends regulations to distinguish between tipped occupations and non-tipped occupations ...
On 11 December 2015, shortly before the holiday season began, the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services published an amendment to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations (“the regulations”) in the Government Gazette. The amendment states that Internet domain names registered in the .co.za, .net.za, .web.za and .org.za are open to alternative dispute resolution under the regulations ...
By its own very high standards, Real Madrid is not having the greatest of soccer seasons, although it has, at least, triumphed in a recent domain name case.The decision in the case of Real Madrid Club de Futbol v Jose Delfim Mendosa de Vasconelos was handed down by panelist Eduardo Machado on 24 January 2018. The issue in the case was straightforward: an individual in Brazil registered the domain name www.realmadrid.com.br ...
Introduction On 20 January 2022, the Interim Measures for Interconnection Services between the China Interbank Bond Market and the Exchange Bond Market[1] (the “Connect Measures”) were jointly issued by China’s bond market infrastructures, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), the China Foreign Exchange Trade Center & National Inter-bank Funding Center (CFETS), the China Securities Depository Clearing Corporation (CSDCC), and the Shanghai C
In recent years parallel trade in the pharmaceutical sector has been a hot topic. On September 16 2008 the European Court of Justice published its eagerly anticipated judgment on the refusal to supply by dominant pharmaceutical companies in the Syfait II Case. Recently, the Belgian competition authorities have also addressed this subject when dismissing an appeal by Bofar, an exporter of pharmaceutical products ...
The film industry in the Dominican Republic has substantially expanded in large measure because the country has different and diverse natural scenery, from beaches to mountains, and buildings that were constructed in colonial times as well as more recently. Costs to film and produce movies are lower in the Dominican Republic than in many other places, too ...
Located on an island in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic is a growing destination for U.S. businesses seeking to establish or expand overseas operations. An economically and politically stable country organized as a representative democratic government, it is the Caribbean's largest democratic country. The Dominican Republic had an inflation rate during the past year of only 4 ...
What are trademark scams? Many scam artists attempt to solicit money from trademark owners by sending notices that appear to be authentic but are meant to mislead or fraudulently induce payment for unnecessary or nonexistent services. Unfortunately, because trademark filings are a matter of public record, many bad actors utilize the filing information to prey upon the owners by seeming legitimate. An example of a widely -known scam is shown below ...
Businesses will be given a further extension until 31 December 2024 to start using the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking for goods placed on the GB market. The labelling easement has also been extended until 31 December 2027. Despite the UK Government previously stating that 1 January 2023 would be ‘the final deadline’, it has further extended the date by which businesses must use the UKCA marking ...
The UK government has announced plans to extend recognition of the CE marking ‘indefinitely’ beyond the upcoming deadline of 31 December 2024 for certain products placed on the Great Britain (GB) market, leading to uncertainty over the future of the UKCA marking ...
Following the UK Government’s announcement in August 2023 of plans to extend the recognition of the CE marking ‘indefinitely’, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has announced its intention to propose legislation in the spring of 2024 that will indefinitely recognise CE marking for many types of products sold in Great Britain (GB) ...
The art of listening sometimes escapes even the most intelligent people. A person who does not listen often brings an uncomfortable feeling to a relationship – whether professional or personal. Listening is a vital piece of excellent client service delivery. It requires you to be silent but very aware of what the client says are his or her needs ...
Donald Trump comes up in our articles from time to time, as does the issue of bad faith. Both come up in this one. In a recent case in the UK, a company called Trump International, which is owned by a German by the name of Michael Gleissner, filed applications to register the trade mark Trump TV in the communications and entertainment categories (classes 38 and 41). The US President, via a rights management company, opposed these applications ...
“The Trump Organization also earns income by licensing the Trump name to building developers around the world.” – BBC news site in an article entitled “What conflicts of interest could Donald Trump have?” Donald Trump has hogged the headlines for many months. So it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s even managed to make trade mark news ...
This is a story of the age, a story of a character that became a global sensation thanks to the internet. The story is also about the creator of that character, who had the foresight to understand that the character might well become a valuable marketing property and took steps to legally protect the character (its name and image) through IP law, particularly trade mark and copyright law, thus creating “the IP rights” and making the creator “the IP owner” ...
Although the data for San Francisco Bay Area remains encouraging for the first quarter of 2020*, given the economic instability brought by COVID-19, we might see more down rounds going forward. Down rounds are financings where the company is valued less than in a previous round. In practical terms this means that the new investors are buying shares of the company at a lesser price than the previous investors ...
