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Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | January 2013

In a Federal Register notice dated December 26, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Dept. of the Treasury updated its regulations to include prohibitions on foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations from doing business with Iran. 77 F.R. 75848. The amended regulations also make clear that penalties for trading with Iran by a foreign subsidiary can be imposed on its U.S. parent. Such penalties will not be applied if the U.S ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | January 2013

On January 1, 2013, the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the "Act") to avert the "fiscal cliff." The Act includes a number of extensions and modifications relating to energy tax provisions ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | January 2013

On December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) of the People’s Republic of China passed the Resolution of the Standing Committee of the NPC Relating to Strengthening the Protection of Information on the Internet (the “Regulations”). The Regulations contain significant and far-reaching requirements applicable to the collection and processing of electronic personal information via the Internet ...

Waller | January 2013

The so-named “American Taxpayer Relief Act,” now signed by the President after having been passed in the wee hours by the Senate on January 1, 2013, and later that day by the House, may pull the country back from a self-created fiscal/political ditch, but leaves the country at the edge of a fiscal cliff with spending cut issues, debt ceiling issues and undoubtedly more tax issues to be dealt with before March 1, 2013. Overview ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

On November 16, 2012, European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx published an Opinion on the European Commission’s Communication on cloud computing (part of the Commission’s broader cloud computing strategy) ...

Haynes and Boone, LLP | December 2012

Coming as a surprise to some, the European Parliament approved rules creating a Unified Patent Court and a Unitary Patent on December 11, 2012, after lengthy consideration ...

Lavery Lawyers | December 2012

 Property Management: When does a Breach of Contract become Gross Negligence? (2) Ensuring the Safety of Citizens is a Primary Obligation of the State. On October 10, 2012, the Québec Court of Appeal rendered a most interesting judgment for owners and managers of commercial real estate.  In May 1976, Samen Investments Inc. acquires the Gordon Brown Building on De Maisonneuve Boulevard West, near Bleury Street ...

Promote infrastructure, “…to close the gap between different regions of the country and promote economic growth and competitiveness…” is one of the first measures announced by President Enrique Peña Nieto, through his “Thirteen Presidential Decisions”, which consider the following relevant matters: 1. National Infrastructure and Transport Program 2012-2018 (“Program”) ...

Lavery Lawyers | December 2012

With regard to our In Fact and In Law Express newsletter of July 2012, entitled ‘‘AMF Investigations: The duty to answer an investigator and his jurisdiction to rule on objections’’, please be informed that, on December 20, 2012, the Supreme Court dismissed Fournier’s application for leave1 to appeal a Court of Appeal decision2, which convicted Fournier of an offence under section 195(4) SA because of his refusal to testify whereas lower courts acquitted him ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

On Oct. 22, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by granting a right of way for the Ruby Pipeline project. Center for Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management, No. 10-72356 (9th Cir. Oct. 22, 2012) ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

Many construction site operators take for granted permits for stormwater discharge. Operators file Notices of Intent for general permits, needing only to provide plans for sedimentation and erosion control at the construction site.Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant loading that a water body can receive in a day and still safely meet water quality standards ...

Haynes and Boone, LLP | December 2012

End users will be relieved to know that compliance dates for business conduct and documentation rules related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), which had been driving the request by swap dealers and major swap participants for end users to enter into the ISDA August 2012 DF Protocol or otherwise amend their swap documents by the end of the year, have now been delayed until May 1, 2013 ...

The 2013 Federal Revenue Law was published yesterday and its Transitional Article 3 includes an amnesty covering payment of federal taxes and related government charges, as follows: a)  80% forgiveness of tax assessment consisting of federal taxes, antidumping duties, and fines for failure to comply with federal tax obligations, other than payment obligations, arising prior to January 1, 2007 ...

Lavery Lawyers | December 2012

Employment Conditions of Foreign Workers (2) Share Ownership: An Overview (3) Certificate of Intellectual Property Pertaining to Software. Employers frequently resort to the use of foreign workers. In some industries, this is practically unavoidable. Faced with the new reality of foreign workers, many companies have questions about how to manage the workers they hire and the specific conditions applying to them ...

Lavery Lawyers | December 2012

French at work, at school and in the Civil Administration - Protection and bolstering of the official language.  The title of this newsletter gives a good summary of the explanatory notes that serve as an introduction to Bill 14, entitled "An Act to Amend the Charter of the French Language, the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and other Legislative Provisions" ("The Bill"). The Legislature is concerned that English is being used systematically in certain workplaces ...

Haynes and Boone, LLP | December 2012

In light of a recent federal court order, companies – especially those at risk of False Claims Act suits – should revisit their protocol for handling communications with in-house counsel. In United States ex rel. Baklid-Kunz v. Halifax Hospital Medical Center, a federal magistrate judge ordered Halifax Hospital to produce communications involving in-house lawyers in an ongoing FCA suit against the hospital ...

Haynes and Boone, LLP | December 2012

On November 30, 2012, the long-awaited amendments to the Mexican federal labor law were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación). The primary purpose of this set of reforms is to promote job creation and to attempt to regularize labor relationships that arise informally ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently overturned the United States Patent & Trademark Office ("USPTO") interpretation of the patent term adjustment ("PTA") statute in Exelixis, Inc. v. Kappos. Similar to Wyeth v. Kappos, where a previous USPTO interpretation of the PTA statute was overturned, the Exelixis decision promises to add months and even years to the patent term of many patents ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in VAM Check Cashing Corp. v. Federal Insurance Company, No. 11-2644-cv, (2d Cir. Nov. 7, 2012), found the "overt felonious act" requirement in a crime insurance policy to be ambiguous. The court held, therefore, that the insured would be entitled to coverage for a theft at the insured’s store, even though it occurred as a result of a covert scheme to defraud ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

On November 14th, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and the Department of Justice (the "DOJ") released their jointly developed "Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" (the "Guide"). Long awaited and much anticipated, the Guide brings together in a single, 120-page document the agencies’ interpretation of the FCPA and approach to enforcement activities ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

Narrow Construction of Food & Drug Act Undermines FDA Regulation, Class Actions  A divided panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturned on First Amendment grounds the conviction of a pharmaceutical sales representative for conspiracy to introduce a misbranded drug into interstate commerce, an offense more commonly referred to as off-label marketing.  The decision, United States v. Caronia, No. 09-5006-cr (2d Cir. Dec ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

On October 31, 2012, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a finding that two chemicals classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as possibly carcinogenic pursuant to the Labor Code do not meet the standard for inclusion on the Proposition 65 list ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

Half a billion people living in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. Ryan Ketchum a partner in Hunton & Williams’ Energy and Infrastructure practice, explains how Uganda and Rwanda are working to turn themselves into places where electricity investors want to be. Uganda Uganda provides a compelling example. For several years it has suffered from a shortage of generationcapacity ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | December 2012

The America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) authorizes the U.S. Patent Office to create a new third tier of fees for patent prosecution and maintenance — "Micro Entity Status" — where fees may be reduced by up to 75 percent. Micro entities are eligible to pay fees 50 percent lower than those paid by small entities and 75 percent lower than those paid by large entities ...

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | November 2012

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) recently published a questionnaire to gather feedback on how privacy seals might be used to improve data protection compliance and customer privacy awareness. The questionnaire is available online until November 30, 2012 ...

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