The risk of corruption – bribery, money laundering – continues to be a cause of significant concern for U.S. businesses operating in the Latin America region. Effective compliance programs are clearly the first line of defense to prevent corrupt practices. But any company with any degree of global operations including Latin America is unlikely to be completely successful ...
A parliamentary Act of 26 December 2013 fundamentally altered the Belgian rules for dismissals. It harmonised the dismissal rule for blue-collar and white-collar workers and obliged the employer to give a reason for the dismissal. Furthermore, it removed the insecurity felt by many employers when dismissing white-collar employees ...
Montenegro In the light of recent developments in trademark protection practices and the intensification of EU legislative harmonisation, amendments to the Law on Trademarks (“the Law”) have been adopted. Amendments to the existing Law will mainly serve to improve rules by setting, in certain cases, stricter standards, and will remove certain ambiguities that currently exist in the Law ...
What has made corporate stalwarts such as Maersk (shipping), Proctor & Gamble (consumer goods), LG (electronics), Caterpillar (construction equipment), CEMEX (construction materials) , Nike (sports equipment and apparel) and Heineken (breweries), just to name a few, choose to establish their headquarters in this small country with a population of merely 3 ...
The Supreme Court issued a decision on June 23rd in the closely watched case of Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 573 U.S. ___ (2014) (Halliburton II). A majority of the Court declined to overrule the fraud-on-the-market presumption of reliance, which makes it easier for plaintiffs in securities fraud class actions to prove reliance and obtain class certification ...
In a significant decision affecting Texas corporate law, the Texas Supreme Court decided on June 20th there is no common law claim for shareholder oppression in Texas; the court also set the standards and remedies available for oppression claims brought pursuant to the rehabilitative receiver statute in the Texas Business Organizations Code ...
On June 13, 2014, several amendments to both the General Law on Business Corporations (Ley General de Sociedades Comerciales) and the Commercial Code were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. The reform package is aimed at reducing the cost and time required for certain corporate formalities, and also includes legislation in the areas of corporate governance, minority rights and share transfers similar to the current regulations under the Securities Act ...
CONTENT Overview of the Proposed Rules Respecting Equity CrowdfundingTrademarks in the English Language on Pubilc Signs and Posters OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSED RULES RESPECTING EQUITY CROWDFUNDING Josianne Beaudry In 2013, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) launched a consultation on equity crowdfunding, as we already discussed it in this publication last fall ...
On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a petition to cancel six trademarks owned by the Washington Redskins football team. InAmanda Blackhorse, et al. v. Pro-Football, Inc., the TTAB, by a 2-1 vote, held cancellation of the trademarks was warranted “because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.” See opinion here ...
In 2014, the Governor of Jakarta issued updates on the Jakarta Minimum Wage through the following regulations: Regulation No.54 of 2014 on the Minimum Sectoral Wage in the Province for 2014. Adjustments were made for the following industries under Regulation 54, namely Cosmetics, Automotive, Canned foods, Pharmaceuticals, Hospital Services, Radio and television, audio and visual recording devices; and Electronic household goods ...
On 26 March 2014, the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration (“Minister”) issued Circular Letter No. SE.3/MEN/III/2014 on The Implementation of Mandatory Manpower Reports by Companies (“Circular Letter”). The Circular Letter instructs all Governors and Regents/Mayors that all regional manpower offices within their jurisdiction, are to simplify the process of receiving and processing companies’ mandatory ‘manpower reports’ ...
There was an interesting article in a publication called TBO (Trademarks and Brands Online) entitled Fluid Trademarks: Keeping Them Watertight. As the title suggests, it deals with fluid trade marks. But what exactly are they? ‘Fluid trade marks’ isn’t some obscure way of describing trade marks that are used for beverages. The term rather refers to trade marks that vary in use. The article says that ‘fluid trademarks are those presented in an unconventional way.. ...
The relationship between parody and IP rights comes up quite often. Just recently the Advocate General of Europe’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), handed down his opinion in the case of Deckmyn, a case which involves the allegedly parodic use by a Belgian political party of a comic in which there is copyright ...
The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe became a member of ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization) with effect from 19 May 2014, with the Harare Protocol entering into force on 19 August 2014. This brings the number of ARIPO Member States to 19 and the number of states party to the Harare Protocol to 18 ...
Many South African businesses are finding it necessary to become acquainted with Chinese trade mark law and practice. One reason for this is that China is a market that many SA companies want to access. This requires them to make sure that they can use their trade marks in China without infringing the rights of other companies. In other words, they need to do trade mark searching ...
Copyright protects a wide range of works. The first of the categories listed in the South African Copyright Act (“the Act”) is ‘literary works’. It is an unhelpful monitor, because literary merit does not come into it at all – the definition in the Act in fact uses the phrase ‘irrespective of literary quality’. The Act goes on to make it clear that works such as reports, tables and compilations are categorised under the term ‘literary works’ ...
Many entities choose to incorporate in Delaware as a result of the abundance of case law on corporate matters and the willingness and ability of the Delaware legislature to adapt to changing times. The ATPdecision is a recent example of the Delaware courts and legislature in considering corporate governance changes in response to stockholder litigation.ATP DecisionIn ATP Tour, Inc. v. Deutscher Tennis Bund, No. 534, 2013 (Del ...
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that competitors may bring private suits alleging unfair competition under the Lanham Act based on misleading and deceptive food and beverage labels that are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), overruling a Ninth Circuit decision ...
It was in contravention of the Danish Act on Prohibition against Discrimination in respect of Employment to advertise for "student assistants who would like to earn some money for a year or so before starting further education". This was established by the Danish Board of Equal Treatment by its decision of 13 December 2013. The case involved a company's advertisement in a local paper in which the accounting department was seeking student assistants ...
Copying confidential emails to a private email account was not unlawful use of trade secrets, but the termination of the consultancy agreement was justified. This was established by the judgment of the Danish Eastern High Court on 27 January 2014. The case dealt with a consultant who throughout a period of ten years had been employed by the employer. The consultant had terminated the employment relationship for expiry at the end of August 2008 ...
By judgment of 6 January 2014, the Danish Eastern High Court found that a sales consultant did not have status as a salaried employee. The case involved a woman who for a period of 2 months had acted as a sales consultant for a company. Thereafter, the company decided to end the cooperation. The sales consultant made a claim for salary, holiday allowance, mileage allowance and compensation for lack of employment contract ...
