A recent Tenth Circuit decision shines light on a new avenue to challenge cannabis businesses, even in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal. Although the potential federal criminal threat to cannabis businesses in states that have legalized medical or recreational cannabis has been relatively well-discussed, the potential civil threat has received little attention. In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper, 859 F.3d 865 (10th Cir ...
We previously reported on recent efforts to rescind the Obama Administration’s rule amending the Clean Water Act’s “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) definition. This followed, as we also reported, the Sixth Circuit’s nationwide stay of the Obama Administration’s WOTUS rule ...
What’s in the Infrastructure Program? To fortify infrastructure, unlock economy growth potential, and to ramp up investment momentum, lawmakers in Taiwan passed a special bill for Forward-looking Infrastructure Program earlier this year, allocating a budget of NT$420 billion to develop infrastructure needed for the next thirty years ...
On January 1, 2019, local agencies will be required to comply with new requirements for posting agendas on their websites (AB 2257). The California Brown Act requires that any local agency must post an agenda 72 hours in advance of a regular meeting. If an agency has a website, then the agency is required to post the agenda on their website ...
Traditionally, investment decisions have focused primarily on increasing economic value. Over the past few decades, however, an investment philosophy focused on creating non-economic value by advancing social or charitable causes has become increasingly commonplace. This investment philosophy, traditionally referred to as socially responsible investing, has historically been assumed to involve the sacrifice of economic gains in furtherance of non-economic objectives ...
The Interinstitutional Committee for PPP has enacted new regulations for submission of PPPs Projects for its analysis and approval. This new regulation contains the minimum requirements and guidelines that a PPP Project must fulfill to obtain the prior authorization of the Interinstitutional Committee for PPP, before the public entity initiates the bidding process ...
Recent proposed amendments to the rules of Strate, South Africa’s central securities depository (the “Strate Rules”) will effect a significant change to how uncertificated securities are pledged, but will not solve all of the problems that market participants hoped would be addressed ...
We’ve written a fair bit about copyright recently, and much of our focus has been on how the digital age has brought about a marked change in attitude towards copyright (often bordering on ignorance), and has made copyright infringement much easier. In this article, we look at two further examples that reflect this trend. We also look at proposed changes to South African copyright law.The first of our examples deals with sharing images ...
A highly unusual thing about Google, which according to Brand Finance has now become the world’s most valuable brand (USD109.4-billion), is that it is seemingly able to defy the rule that if your trade mark becomes a verb, you’ve pretty much lost the trade mark because it’s become generic ...
On 30 June 2017, after an initial round of public commentary undertaken by the JSE Limited (“JSE”) on the proposed amendments to the JSE Debt Listings Requirements (“DLRs”), the South African Registrar of Securities Services announced that “Part 2” of the 2016 amendments are available on the Financial Services Board’s website for further public comment. The deadline to review and comment on the proposals is 14 July 2017 ...
A recent decision involving registered designs is a reminder of how useful design law can be, in the sense that it can be used to protect an almost limitless range of products. The decision in the UK case of Ahmet Erol v Sumaira Javaid (Design) (a decision of the Appointed Person, 18 May 2017) does not create any law, but it does illustrate two things. The first is how registered designs can often be very low-tech ...
An increasing number of African companies do business in the Far East, and many of them register their trade marks in the region’s major markets. So, it’s interesting to look at trade mark developments in the major markets from time-to-time. In this article, we look at some recent decisions in China, India and Japan. China China is probably the major market for most African companies and we have discussed Chinese trade mark issues in a number of our articles ...
The pieces of the puzzle are finally falling into place. The long-awaited level 3 and 4 measures have been published earlier this week, half a year before the PRIIPs KID becomes compulsory.On 4 July 2017 the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a Questions and Answers document related to the PRIIPs KID which reverts to questions linked with the presentation, content and review of the KID, including the methodologies underpinning the risk, reward and costs information ...
Earlier this year, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg published the new law on the renewal of aid schemes for research, development and innovation (hereafter, the “RDI”) and on the missions of the national Agency for the promotion of innovation and research. This law amends the Law on the promotion of research, development and innovation.This reformed law aims at exploiting in Luxembourg all the potential offered by the EU rules related to State aid to RDI ...
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court held in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., that the three-year time limit in the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose that is not subject to equitable tolling. This means that shareholders will not be able to rely on the filing of a proposed class action lawsuit to suspend the running of a statute of repose on their individual claims ...
The purpose of this article is to highlight the principal changes to the rules and procedures governing national public procurements in Argentina, introduced by Decree 1030/2016. The new Regulation does not introduce substantial changes to its predecessor, although it does include some relevant modifications. Introduction In September 2016, the government of Argentina modified some of the rules and procedures governing national public procurement ...
Prior to imposing, extending, or increasing any tax, a public agency must submit the tax to a vote of the electorate. However, public agencies need no such approval to impose certain types of fees. In Jacks v. City of Santa Barbara, the Supreme Court considered whether and when municipal franchise fees—fees charged to utilities and others for the use of public rights of way—constitute taxes requiring voter approval ...
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have issued statements of non-objection to the revised draft RTS under the PRIIPs Regulation which were endorsed last month by the European Commission. Finally, the long-awaited level 2 measures have been agreed on and further guidance on level 3 as well as level 4 by the ESAs and the European Commission is expected in the near future ...
Earlier this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) reached an important decision in the case Medisanus d.o.o. v General Hospital Murska Sobota (C-296/15) concerning public procurement procedures ...
Following South Africa’s sovereign credit rating downgrade by ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and, on 9 June 2017, Moody’s, as well as developments in political circles around allegations of “state capture”, relations between private business and the country’s public entities have become a hot topic ...
On 9 November 2016, a notice was published by the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”), in terms of which the DTI proposed that all major broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) ownership transactions, as per code 100 of the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice, which equal or exceed ZAR100-million, calculated by either combining the annual turnover of both entities or their asset values (the “Proposed Threshold”), must
Last month, the Supreme Court decided TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, which narrowed the definition of where a corporate defendant "resides" for the purpose of suing it for patent infringement. In doing so, it overturned the 1994 holding of the Federal Circuit of what constitutes proper venue in patent infringement cases. Federal law allows a Plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit against a defendant in any district where one of two conditions are met ...
