On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, information security firm Mandiant issued a report documenting computer security breaches at hundreds of organizations, allegedly resulting from a cyber-espionage campaign undertaken by elements of the Chinese government. The Mandiant report is only the latest in a series of much-publicized incidents of “hacking” performed by what is believed to be a variety of public and private actors ...
In insurance law, as well as in other areas of contract law, the precise definition and scope of the terminology used in a contract are very important since they have a direct effect on the obligations of the parties and, in the case under review, the scope of the insurance coverage. On February 11, 2016, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal1 issued two judgments while it analyzed the scope to be given to some expressions inherent to insurance contracts ...
In insurance law, as well as in other areas of contract law, the precise definition and scope of the terminology used in a contract are very important since they have a direct effect on the obligations of the parties and, in the case under review, the scope of the insurance coverage. On February 11, 2016, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal1 issued two judgments while it analyzed the scope to be given to some expressions inherent to insurance contracts ...
The Insurance Commission (“IC”) of the Philippines has issued a circular letter dated June 14, 2020 on the adoption of a regulatory sandbox framework for the experimentation and testing of insurance technology innovations (IC Circular Letter No. 2020-73 (“ICL 2020-73”): “Guidelines on the Adoption of a Regulatory Sandbox Framework for Insurance Technology (InsurTech) Innovations).” The full text of Circular Letter No ...
Early last week, the UAE experienced its most severe rainfall in the past 75 years. A large number of homes and business premises across the UAE suffered damage from the effects of the rain or floods, including the many motor vehicles that were stalled or otherwise impaired ...
The recent decision of the Court of Quebec, Small Claims Division, in the case of Spénard v. Promutuel Bois-Francs, société mutuelle d’assurance générale,1 revisited the issue of the right of an insurer to seek the nullity of an insurance policy based on an insured’s failure to disclose a prior conviction under the Young Offenders Act. The Plaintiff claimed $5,100 from his insurer for property stolen from his home between January 24 and January 27, 2003 ...
The Insurance Authority has now gazetted the Insurance (Special Purpose Business) Rules. They will come into effect on 29th March, 2021, the same day as the Insurance (Amendment) Ordinance which makes provision for special purpose insurers (see our Client Alert dated 27 May 2020 regarding special purpose insurers). The Rules restrict the sale of insurance linked securities. Insurance linked securities are securities issued through insurance securitisation i.e ...
The Insurance Authority has recently gazetted the Insurance (Group Capital) Rules. They will come into effect on 29th March, the same day as the Insurance (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance which makes provision for the Insurance Authority to supervise on a consolidated basis designated insurance holding companies and members of their supervised group (see our Client Alert dated 27th May, 2020 regarding designated insurance holding companies) ...
Regulatory Sandbox Framework for Insurtech and Other Regulated Entities Only a small sliver of the Philippine population, less than 2%, avails itself of insurance. This is one of the lowest rates in Asia. Access to mobile phones, however, is ubiquitous and, as such, insurance providers are developing mobile applications to serve, and attract, customers better ...
The government has released a discussion paper outlining proposals for the reform of Australia's insolvent trading laws designed to ensure that the insolvency laws complement and assist the conduct of workouts. The paper seeks submissions on issues that arise for directors from operation of the insolvent trading laws, particularly in the context of attempts at business rescue outside formal insolvency administrations ...
Insolvency Law Update-Proceedings Against Guarantors CONTRIBUTION BY: Samiron Borkataky, Partner, Kochhar & Co. EMAIL: samiron.borkataky@kochhar ...
China's pharmaceutical industry is witnessing a notable surge in "pipeline spin-off projects", a model commonly referred to as the "Spin-off-NewCo" or "SON" model. Within the past two months, we've been advising on nearly ten SON projects. Leading pharmaceutical companies in China are more frequently adopting the SON model to separate parts of their pipelines into new, independent companies ...
China's pharmaceutical industry is witnessing a notable surge in "pipeline spin-off projects", a model commonly referred to as the "Spin-off-NewCo" or "SON" model. Within the past two months, we've been advising on nearly ten SON projects. Leading pharmaceutical companies in China are more frequently adopting the SON model to separate parts of their pipelines into new, independent companies ...
The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued its annual bid protest report on Nov. 1.[1] This year's report is noteworthy because it shows that protesters received some form of relief from the procuring agency in more than half of the protests filed with the GAO in fiscal year 2022 ...
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) announced that, as part of President Obama’s recently proposed budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the PTO’s budget would be $2.322 billion, a 23 percent increase over FY 2010. This significant budget increase is part of PTO Director Kappos’ long term plan for increasing PTO examination efficiency and decreasing the backlog of applications ...
There are plenty of articles which set out the "hard facts" of Freeports - the locations, tax benefits etc. - but are we all missing the real point? One of the key objectives of the UK government was to "create hotbeds for innovation" ...
In April 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 ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the difficulties in reacting at European level to a major health crisis and the intention of the European Commission is to respond more effectively to future problems in the area of health. As a result, it is currently conducting an initial assessment of possible legislative changes in the area of medicinal products for human use ...
Background In January 2022, the Hordaland District Court issued a decision that authorised the Competition Authority to conduct a dawn raid and seize evidence at Kommunal Landspensjonskasse Mutual Insurance Company (“KLP”). The dawn raid was carried out in February 2022. The seizure included, among other things, electronic material produced by KLP’s in-house lawyers ...
The manufacturer of the official facemask for the Brazilian Football Confederation filed a court action against an e-commerce company, accusing it of offering similar items allegedly manufactured by third parties. The manufacturer of the official facemask for the men’s and women’s teams of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) filed a court action against an e-commerce company, accusing it of offering similar items allegedly manufactured by third parties ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced its temporary policy regarding environmental enforcement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy is retroactive to March 13, 2020, and will apply for the foreseeable future, until seven days after EPA gives notice that the policy will terminate. The policy applies to actions for which EPA has federal enforcement authority ...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released an interim final rule on October 29, 2020, delaying the implementation of the information blocking rule under the 21st Century Cures Act (Information Blocking Rule) ...
In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) brought charges against Kim Kardashian (“Kardashian”) for failure to disclose payments she received in connection with promoting EthereumMax on Instagram. This article outlines why public persons and projects operating in the web3 ecosystem must tread carefully so as to not implicate unwelcome regulatory oversight ...
August 17, 2022 By: Gwenneth O’Hara, Nora Sheriff and Christopher Parker President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (HR 5376) (the Act) into law on August 16, 2022. This update provides a high level overview of the Act’s incentives for the energy sector. We have published a separate update regarding the Act’s energy storage incentives. The Act provides $750 billion for a range of issues, including $400 billion for energy and climate ...
