2016 has been a busy year for IP on the African continent, with developments in Liberia, the Cayman Islands, South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, among others. Liberia: Intellectual Property Act and Swakopmund Protocol membership Liberia’s House of Representatives has approved and published the Intellectual Property Act, 2014 (the “new Act”), which repeals the Industrial Property Act of 2003. The regulations are currently being drafted ...
“The Trump Organization also earns income by licensing the Trump name to building developers around the world.” – BBC news site in an article entitled “What conflicts of interest could Donald Trump have?” Donald Trump has hogged the headlines for many months. So it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s even managed to make trade mark news ...
Judge Mervyn King’s name is synonymous with corporate governance in South Africa. 1 November 2016 saw the delivery of the fourth version of the famous King report on corporate governance, King IV. So, just what does this latest report mean for IP? Well, there’s apparently no mention of the term “intellectual property” in the report at all, so one might be inclined to answer that it means nothing ...
In a rare IP law decision in Namibia, the High Court has made it clear that it takes IP seriously, that English and South African IP decisions are very relevant, and that anyone alleging passing off will need to submit compelling evidence to establish that they have the necessary reputation ...
Seek advice before signing up to the ISDA Resolution Stay Jurisdictional Modular Protocol It is a matter of time before you, as a market participant, are approached by large institutional derivative, securities lending or repo counterparties from the United Kingdom (“UK”) to sign up to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s Resolution Stay Jurisdictional Modular Protocol (“ISDA JMP”) and the UK jurisdictional module, or before you are asked t
A federal appeals court has rejected two challenges to the environmental review of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro's) planned subway expansion in Downtown Los Angeles. The "Regional Connector" project, approved in 2012, will create a three-station, underground link through Downtown that will allow passengers to travel from points on the Metro Gold Line to the Blue and Expo lines without having to transfer trains ...
As a British Overseas Territory with no direct taxes, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has been an attractive domicile for trust establishment by high-net-worth individuals and their advisers for many years. However, in the recent past, with the Government’s focus firmly on developing TCI’s enormously successful luxury tourism industry, the updating of TCI’s non-regulatory legislation in the field of financial services had been a little neglected ...
The October issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Mining Developments”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Aaron Roi B. Riturban ...
In an earlier inBrief dated 9 December 2014 we wrote about Federal Law No. 4/2012 on the regulation of competition (the “Competition Law”), which introduced the means by which the United Arab Emirates could regulate anti-competitive practices ...
The 2017 edition of Getting the Deal Through: Islamic Finance & Markets features SyCipLaw Of Counsel Mia G. Gentugaya as contributing editor. SyCipLaw Partner Amer Hussein N. Mambuay contributed the Philippine section ...
In a previous newsflash, we highlighted the significant changes made to the broad-based black economic empowerment (“B-BBEE”) landscape in South Africa that were introduced by the new B-BBEE Regulations (the “Regulations”) issued by the Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”) on 6 June 2016 ...
It is now more than four months since the seismic shock of the Brexit vote. The honeymoon period of the summer months has passed. The debate has turned to what flavour of Brexit we might be left with and the timing of Article 50 and the level of oversight MPs should have. There remain far more imponderables than facts and this seems set to be case for some time. For those of us who negotiate for a living, this is a reality that is inevitable ...
Effective November 1st, new guidelines came into effect for patent applications before the European Patent Office (“EPO”). One significant change affects what the EPO will accept as evidence of transfer of ownership of a patent application, an assignment ...
Overview The new Bankruptcy Law of the UAE was enacted on September 20, 2016 as Decree-Law No. 9 of 2016. It was published in the Federal Official Gazette on September 29, 2016, giving it an effective date of December 31, 2016. The new Bankruptcy Law replaces and repeals the previous legislation on the subject, Book 5 of the Commercial Code, which was seldom used in light of its perceived shortcomings ...
The reform of French law of obligations implemented by the French ordinance No 2016-131 of 10 February 2016 (the “Ordinance”), conducted after public consultations and high quality working papers, constitutes the deepest overhaul of French contract law since the Civil Code of 1804. The Ordinance applies to contracts entered into as from 1st October 20162, including amendment agreements, tacit renewals and novated contracts executed or occurring after such date ...
On October 26th, 2016, Law No. 20,950, otherwise known as the “Law to Boost Productivity” (the “Law”), was published in the Official Gazette, introducing various modifications to different laws and regulations in order to enhance the country’s productivity through the expansion of the financial system and the promotion of the exportation of services. Main measures for the expansion of the financial system: Several legal provisions of Law Decree No ...
The October 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) includes a regional update article entitled “New Implementing Rules for Philippine Data Privacy Act”, contributed by SyCipLaw partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez. The article enumerated and discussed the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012. It is located on page 11. Read the full ALB October 2016 issue on the ALB website ...
On October 18th the 8th Annual IBA “Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia and CIS” Conference was held at Ararat Park Hyatt hotel in Moscow. A conference was presented by the IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee and supported by the IBA European Regional Forum. The Conference brought together experts in the field of economics and law from around the globe to discuss the latest emerging developments and hot topics in Russian and CIS M&A law ...
In July 2016, the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the “DTI”) published, and invited public comment on, its Intellectual Property Consultative Framework (the “IPCF”). The IPCF reflects the DTI’s views on South Africa’s IP policy position in the form of a consultative instrument ...
Offensive trade marks, which we have written about previously, have again been in the news of late. Two US trade mark cases have dominated the headlines, and one of these has made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. This certainly suggests that Americans feel strongly about the issue of offensive trade marks. As South Africans are likely to have equally strong feelings on the issue of names that might offend particular groups, these US cases are worth discussing ...
Law No 20,590 (the “Law”), that authorizes the issuance and operation of pre-funded payment methods or any other similar system (the “Prepaid Cards”), by non-banking entities, when these systems involve that the issuer or the operator regularly engages in monetary obligations with the general public or to specific sectors or groups thereof, was published and came in force on October 29, 2016 ...
We are pleased to announce that Karanovic & Nikolic team, together with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has supported UniCredit S.p.A. (Italy) in a recently closed take-over of the CEE business of UniCredit Bank Austria AG including shareholdings in 13 banks in Southern Europe and CEE as well as a relevant loan portfolio ...
