The various plans and the range of measures included in them that have been described have produced practical results, particularly an increase in the applications for registration of patents, trademarks and protection by copyright, specifically for property such as software. In terms of applications for patents registered in 2011, China came in first place above the USA and Japan ...
With a law enacted on 17 December 2012, the Finnish parliament moved forward on the longstanding plan to house intellectual property rights disputes in the Market Court. This legislative reform has a significant impact for all companies operating in Finland. The Market Court will start to hear these disputes in the autumn of 2013 ...
In this report, you will find a summary of two important resolutions published in the Official Gazette. Resolution No. 191/2020 Today, Resolution No. 191/2020 of the National Institute of Industrial Property was published in the Official Gazette, by means of which it was established that all communication deadlines made by the National Patent Administration and published in the Patents Bulletin will begin to run as from thirty (30) calendar days from said publication ...
On December 10, 2020, the Minister of Finance, Éric Girard, introduced and tabled Bill 82 entitled An Act respecting mainly the implementation of certain provisions of the Budget Speech of 10 March 2020 (hereinafter the " Bill" ) before the National Assembly. The Bill opens the door to possible limitations on the duty to defend with respect to certain categories of liability insurance contracts to be determined by regulation ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
A New York appellate court affirmed in Syracuse Univ. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., CA 13-01056, (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. Dec. 27, 2013), that an insurer must pay the costs incurred by its policyholder to comply with subpoenas issued to the policyholder as part of a criminal investigation, even where formal charges are not filed ...
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 ...
Arbitral institutions strive to provide the parties they serve with a fair and impartial dispute resolution process that results in an unassailable final award. Since “evident partiality” in the arbitrators is one of the limited means to attack an award, the selection of unbiased arbitrators is fundamental to that goal, and most arbitral institutions have some requirement or guidance on arbitrator disclosures ...
In a 2023 trip and fall case, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted summary judgment in favor of Defendant Wal-Mart. Kozlowski v. Wal-Mart Stores E., LP, No. 5:21-cv-261-ACC-PRL, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116861 (M.D. Fla. May 19, 2023). The plaintiff alleged that she tripped due to humps and ripples in a floor mat at the front entrance of the store ...
The insolvency of one or other of the parties to a dispute has become commonplace in recent times, particularly in construction related disputes. Practitioners are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the implications of insolvency on procedure and the potential remedies available ...
Define the terms of fair Approaching mediation or negotiations requires that the parties agree on what criteria to use to determine what is a fair agreement. Determining these criteria before engaging in negotiations will help parties to articulate the basis for their positions. It can also help to ease tensions and rationalize the process. The criteria must be objective, legitimate and practical. Complicated formulas or unreasonable positions will complicate the discussion ...
In the Court of Appeal (CA) decision of Securities and Futures Commission v Cheng Chak Ngok (CACV 95/2017; [2018] HKCA 590), the less disputed element of insider dealing, namely the element of “dealing” was at issue. As there was no direct evidence showing the dealing in this case, the issue was whether the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to draw inferences that there was in fact dealing in the relevant shares ...
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 cause of an action in defamation exists to provide some recourse and remedy to victims of falsehoods which can and do cause injury to reputation. In a classic formulation, recently adopted and approved by Geopel J ...
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" ...
With the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Hong Kong, employers may wish to encourage or even require their employees to be vaccinated for protection. An interesting question arises: If an employee gets injured on their way to or from the vaccination venue, will the employer have to pay compensation? Two cases in the US may shed light on this. In Firestone Tire Rubber Co. v Crawford, 177 Ga. App. 242 (Ga. Ct. App ...
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 ...
