The European Commission has made a proposal for a directive that is intended to update copyright law to cope with the modern age in which online services are becoming increasingly important. The proposal is part of the 'Digital Single Market Strategy' of the EU: a set of initiatives to create a free trans-border market for online trade and content. The proposed directive (“DSM directive”) supplements the current Copyright Directive with a number of regulations ...
A South African university has successfully objected to a domain name that incorporates the university’s nickname.North-West University (“NWU”), once an exclusively Afrikaans-language institution that’s situated in the city of Potchefstroom, and that was formerly known as the Potchefstroom University College – or PUK – for short (the Afrikaans word for “college” starts with “k”), opposed a registration for the domain name propuk.co.za ...
The Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 (the “Regulations”) implement certain basic informational requirements that bus operators of local services need to implement in their vehicles in order to improve the accessibility of information for passengers on local bus services ...
Two Montréal landmarks have proudly hosted some of the city?s most memorable sporting events. The Olympic Stadium and the IGA Stadium (Figures 1 and 2), which have been and remain quintessential in our sporting history, are in need of renovations so that sports fans can continue to ?raise the roof? for years to come. Figure 1: The Olympic Stadium: A prominent feature of the Montréal skyline. Figure 2: The National Bank Open at the IGA stadium ...
The UK now has one publicly accessible charge point for every 11.2 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) on the road, having seen a remarkable 70% jump in charge points over the past year. The figures, utilised in the calculation of the Electric Vehicle Country Attractiveness (EVCA) Index developed by Cornwall Insight and law firm Shoosmiths, demonstrate the substantial impact of the government's ongoing efforts to expand the charging infrastructure network ...
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published the Creative Industries Sector Deal aimed at making the UK the best place in the world for businesses in the creative industries. This is the latest sector deal to flow from the government's Industrial Strategy White Paper after sector deals for life sciences and the automotive industry were announced in late 2017/early 2018, respectively ...
According to the advocate general’s opinions in C-434/15 Elite Taxi and C-320/16 Uber France, Uber does not provide information society services, but local transport services which may be regulated by EU member states. It has been more than ayear since we signalled that the Court of Justice of the European Union would need to resolve the legal classification of the services provided by Uber ...
The U.S. Department of State has released details on a proposed pilot program testing the agency’s ability to resume domestic visa renewals for certain nonimmigrant visa categories and to study the effect the program has on reducing visa wait times worldwide. The program will begin on January 29, 2024 and end on April 1, 2024 ...
On February 15, 2024, the United States Copyright Office published a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to create a new group registration option for published two-dimensional artwork. Currently, the Copyright Office permits group registration of up to ten unpublished two-dimensional artworks, and it also permits the registration of individual published two-dimensional artworks ...
A recent posting on a popular intellectual property (IP) blog raised an issue that’s becoming increasingly important in the couch-potato / global- village world we now live in: what, if any, legal protection does a TV format enjoy? In South Africa we often watch local versions of foreign TV programs, be they ‘reality’ shows like Big Brother or Come Dine WithMe, ‘talent’ shows like Idols or Masterchef,or game shows like The Weakest L
According to recent reports, it seems to be that an exciting update in the aviation world might be waiting around the corner. More precisely, it has been circulated in the media that the global giant and world's fastest growing airline, Turkish Airlines, is contemplating the acquisition of Croatia's national carrier – Croatia Airlines ...
The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, fondly known as TTB, issued final rules that contain a few game-changers for the alcoholic beverage manufacturing industry. We are particularly fond of the greater flexibility offered to distilleries. Distilleries can now count the years bourbon or whisky are aged in used barrels. Previously, a whisky or bourbon could only list the number of years aged in new oak barrels ...
Australia's Federal Court finds in favour of Nine newspapers against Ben Roberts-Smith. The judgement is a win for investigative journalism and the public’s right to know. Defence was lead by Peter Bartlett, MinterEllison. Nine newspapers’ victory in the Ben Roberts Smith vs Nine defamation case strengthens a core principle of journalism, and key tenant of democracy, which is the public’s right to know ...
On March 30, 2020, the Department of the Treasury published guidelines and procedures for passenger and cargo air carriers (together, “Air Carriers”) seeking relief under the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act ...
This article has been updated based on the available information until 20th February 2021. As Government notifications are constantly revised, it is advisable to consult your attorney or visit the website of the relevant Government agency prior to travelling. Further, in additional to the guidelines published by the Central Government, passengers are also requested to refer to State specific official websites to be well informed about any additional requirements ...
Like many other governments, the Government of Quebec decided to invest in infrastructure to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and stimulate Quebec’s economy. A significant number of investments will be made in the transportation sector, and the government wants to accelerate the realisation of several previously announced transportation infrastructure projects in the greater Montréal area ...
Background The ‘ball’ in this case started ‘rolling’ when Rothschild presented his MetaBirkins collection at Art Basel Miami in December 2021 and began selling it through NFT platforms like OpenSea. The collection consisted of 100 NFTs with digital images of Hermès Birkin bags in various designs. The starting price for one copy was 0.1 ETH (about $450 at the time). The artist was said to have soon sold more than $1 million worth of digital handbags ...
On 25 January 2016, Botswana’s Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (“the CIPA”) issued a notice informing the public that it is not currently able to conduct hearings for trade mark oppositions and invalidations as a result of the recent restructuring of the Botswana Intellectual Property Office. The restructure led to the loss of staff responsible for the processing of opposition hearings and invalidations ...
Global competition law circles have recently been shaken by the European Commission's record-setting fine of EUR 2.93 billion for collusion on the automotive market, imposed against Volvo, Daimler, Iveco and DAF trucks. The sanctions in question varied amongst the accused parties, with Daimler facing the largest penalty in the amount of more than EUR 1 billion on its own. Iveco's fine was set at EUR 494 million, DAF's at EUR 752 million, and Volvo's fine has been set at EUR 670 million ...
The Tokyo Olympic Games have been dubbed the greenest Games to date. Despite some criticism levelled against the claims of their eco-friendly nature, it is notable that the Tokyo Olympics Organising Committee has made significant strides to minimise the Games’ carbon footprint ...
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We would like to share with you an updated digest of the most significant laws and bills and regulatory innovations in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications sector for the period from June 2023 to February 2024, as well as trends in the future regulation of this industry. The TMT industry is currently experiencing significant regulatory pressure with changes constantly being made for both its service providers and the customers who use their products ...
Rail firms have announced proposals to close hundreds of ticket offices across England and Wales over the next three years, potentially creating redundancy situations. Could the offer of alternative roles provide a way of avoiding redundancy dismissals? When does a redundancy situation arise and what obligations does an employer have? Redundancy is one of a limited number of potentially fair reasons for which an employer can dismiss an employee ...
One of the essential components of organizing sport events is the ticketing system. Usually implemented by the Organizing Committees (OC), it is not unusual that these agreements contravene EC Law. In the Italy 1990 World Cup, the OC entered into a worldwide exclusive agreement of ground entrance tickets with a single tour travel agency for the purpose of putting together package tours for the event ...
Celebrity chef restaurants, locally inspired food and beverage offerings, communal social spaces, and in-room and hotel-led fitness options–these trends represent a transformation of the traditional hotel model. Amenity preferences, particularly for authentic, one-of-a-kind social experiences, continue to segment the hospitality industry. Many of the large hotel chains have countered with a series of new boutique-style brands that cater to individuality of the customer and locale ...
Do social media users have a fair choice between giving up their privacy and paying a subscription fee? The European Data Protection Board has given its opinion on what’s fair for large platforms in the latest shake up of personalised online advertising. When it comes to justifying processing personal data for targeted advertising under EU data protection laws, Meta (along with other online platforms) has been feeling the squeeze ...
