During the last years franchise agreements receive growing acceptance as an effective tool for establishing or expanding business in Lithuania. This is particularly true for foreign producers and suppliers which have already established extensive franchise networks in Lithuania, e.g. fast food restaurants “McDonald’s”, office supply network “Office 1” or real estate brokers “Re/Max” ...
Since 1 July 2008, on the basis of Act No. 130/2008, Coll., amending the Trade Licensing Act, requirements for commencement of business activities and reduction of the overall administrative burden for tradesmen are significantly simplified.The new regulation introduces reduced requirements for a clean criminal record, since criminal acts committed by negligence have been removed ...
The Court of Appeal (CA) judgment in Symbian Limited v Comptroller General of Patents (2008) EWCA Civ 1066 was issued on 8 October. This has upheld a High Court decision to overrule the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UK-IPO) rejection of a computer program on a conventional computer as non-patentable ...
In May 2008, the government submitted its proposal 2007/08:155 on more stringent merger rules to parliament. The proposal is made in order to strengthen protection for minority shareholders.In May 2008, the government submitted its proposal 2007/08:155 on more stringent merger rules to parliament. The proposal is made in order to strengthen protection for minority shareholders ...
Over the last years merger control in the UK has evolved considerably. Leaving aside the move from a public interest to a competition test, the OFT has overhauled its procedures and processes with the stated aim of retaining a first class merger regime in world of change ...
By decision rendered June 25, 2008, in K. B. & UAB Restoranu Grupe FORTAS v. AB Ragutis (Case No 3K-3-160/2008), the Supreme Court of Lithuania ruled that a component of a trademark that infringes an author’s copyright may not be disclaimed in the trademark registration.The plaintiffs, K. B. and UAB Restoranu Grupe FORTAS, sued one of the oldest breweries in Lithuania, AB Ragutis, for copyright infringement ...
The Government of the Republic of Indonesia ("GOI") understands that Indonesia is becoming part of the globalization of information. Consequently many new forms of legal actions which were not covered by current Indonesian laws and regulations now have to be regulated. On 21 April 2008, after being approved by the House of Representatives, the GOI enacted Law No 11 of 2008 regarding Information and Electronic Transactions ("Law No 11 of 2008") ...
Solicitor and commercial specialist Ross Woodham takes a technical and commercial look at Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), as it grows in popularity. VoIP has existed since the early 1980’s, but was only given serious commercial attention in the late 1990’s, since when the use of VoIP-based technology has grown steadily ...
On 29 June 2003, the Mainland government and the Hong Kong government signed the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (“CEPA”), which offers investors from Hong Kong a step ahead of investors from other countries to explore the Mainland market in various business sec-tors. In essence, CEPA is a free trade agreement between Mainland China and Hong Kong that offers Hong Kong products, companies and residents preferential access to the Mainland market ...
Anybody who has ordered their Christmas shopping online or installed software will have encountered so-called 'clickwrap' agreements. With clickwrap, before being able to complete the order or install the software, you must indicate acceptance of the service provider's terms and conditions – with a simple click on the I agree button – before being able to proceed. This is the stark choice of “take it or leave it” for the digital age ...
What Happened Last week, the chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India's fourth largest information technology company, admitted to a stunning fraud. Fraudulent entries in the company's financial statements totaled in excess of US$ 1 billion, as compared to the actual financial state of the company. In response to the fraud, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd., a local affiliate of Bank of America Corp ...
While they are an integral part of most businesses - often with a primary function of delivering cost savings and efficiencies - they must be kept up-to-date to ensure they achieve those aims. So now is a good time to undertake an IT systems review, and look at consolidation and streamlining. Changes to business structures, acquisitions and a system's age are other triggers for an IT stock take ...
With effect from 1 January 2009, new rules require administrators to provide information to creditors on a range of detailed issues when carrying out a pre-pack sale in an administration. Pre-packs are the process during which a troubled company and a proposed purchaser reach an agreement before an administrator is appointed, relating to the sale of all or part of the company's business or assets ...
GENERAL 1. How can the government’s attitude and approach to internet issues best be described? The attitude of the Belgian government can be described as positive and their approach is proactive. In 2003, the Belgian authorities announced the introduction of ‘e-government’. The most important initiatives were the introduction of electronic identity cards (e-ID) for all Belgian citizens over 12, and the federal government’s information web-portal ...
What is spamdexing? The Internet contains a lot of information. In 2002, the total number of web pages was estimated at 2.024 million; by 2005 this estimate had risen to 11.5 billion2. The ever- increasing amount of information found on the Internet also has disadvantages. In this jungle of information, it is getting harder and harder to see the wood for the trees ...
With the credit crunch likely to affect every aspect of the global economy, the prospect of declining revenue threatens to erode the profitability of many businesses. So the challenge is to preserve cash and cut costs. But how does this affect IT? Cutting back on IT projects is not necessarily an option. Software is the engine of the modern enterprise. Indeed, for many organisations it is their primary source of competitive advantage ...
China has traditionally restricted foreign investment in the retail and wholesale sectors with the aim of nurturing strong domestic players before their foreign counterparts would be allowed to enter the country. Since becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation, China has gradually opened up its distribution sector to foreign investment ...
Software is part of the day-to-day fabric for most companies. And almost everyone who uses it does so with little or no thought about what happens should it fail, or if it is no longer available. However, the prudent software buyer will consider how to protect against failure of critical or bespoke software, which is where escrow may come in. Be warned, though ...
Virtually every business has some sort of website or presence on the internet, and it is often an integral part of the business. At the same time, many organisations use bespoke or customised software internally on a day-to-day basis, and undoubtedly attribute significant value to these assets, not least because the development of them probably required a significant investment via a third party developer providing the software ...
1.1 Please identify the scope of claims that may Switzerland for breach of competition law. Under the Swiss Federal Act on Cartels and Other Restraints of Competition (LCart), civil competition actions can be brought before Swiss civil courts by enterprises impeded by an unlawful restraint of competition ...
In early 2008, 'green computing' and the idea that companies were going to need to implement new measures to improve their green credentials was one of the hot topics in IT. You might have been forgiven for thinking that environmental concern would be among the first casualties of the credit crunch and the resulting recession ...
General socio-economic overview The Republic of Mozambique is situated on the east coast of southern Africa. It is bordered to the north by the Republic of Tanzania, to the northeast by Malawi and Zambia, to the west by Zimbabwe, to the south by Swaziland and to the south and west by South Africa. It is therefore very strategically located, providing a gateway to six other countries ...
Trademark owners often try to stop grey-market and counterfeit goods while in external transit through an EU member state. However, ECJ rulings are unclear as to the extent to which this is possible.Parallel traders purchase trademarked goods outside Europe and import them into the European Community, where higher prices apply. These grey-market goods put pressure on the trademark owner’s profit margins, as they are sold at below market price ...
What is CEPA? The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement ("CEPA") is a free trade agreement between Mainland China and Hong Kong that offers Hong Kong products, companies and residents preferential access to the Mainland market. Many of the preferences go beyond China's WTO concessions. CEPA is not a closed agreement and both sides hold regular meetings on further concessions and the details for implementation ...
Over the last decade, Latin American nations have put considerable effort into demonstrating their willingness to overcome the increasing amount of counterfeit activity in the region These efforts were intensified particularly after the US Trade Representative (USTR) released a warning, by inserting Argentina and Brazil in its “priority watch list” and by applying even greater restrictions to Paraguay, as subject to Section 306 of the 2003 Special 30
