How do you protect the privacy of people who have been infected by Covid-19, while still usefully informing those who have been put at risk? At a time of public health emergency, shouldn't GDPR take a back seat? As companies struggle to get new processes in place to cope with the potential ramifications of Covid-19, the aim of this note is to highlight how EU data protection law applies to this unusual set of circumstances ...
The Coronavirus pandemic is presenting companies and their directors with many challenges. Simply planning for “business as usual” requires change to usual practices, involving a balance between compliance obligations and official public health advice. Holding general meetings, particularly as we enter AGM season for listed companies with a 31 December year-end, is one such challenge ...
Fraud is lurking underside of the pandemic, requiring vigilance and preventive measures. The coronavirus pandemic threatens businesses not only with loss of profit, but also with potential losses due to criminal activity ...
Both houses of the United States Congress have now passed the CARES Act and sent it to the President for his expected signature. Among the provisions in the 880-page Act are critical ones dealing with aid to small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors ...
World: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted all destinations worldwide to introduce restrictions on travel, research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has found. This represents the most severe restriction on international travel in history and no country has so far lifted restrictions introduced in response to the crisis. Following up on previous research, the latest data from the United Nations specialised agency for tourism shows that 100% of destinations now have restrictions in place ...
At Patterson Belknap we continue to diligently monitor the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus and assess the potential legal and business issues that may arise relating to the virus. The situation is fluid, and best practices and guidelines are evolving in real time. We are closely monitoring the situation as it unfolds, and share our latest perspectives on the legal issues relating to COVID-19 below ...
The UK Government believes that up to a fifth of the workforce may be off sick during the peak of a Coronavirus epidemic. It remains to be seen whether Coronavirus will affect that volume of people, but there are already clear signs of how it is disrupting the day-to-day operations of businesses in the UK and around the rest of the world ...
Many businesses are struggling due to the Covid-19 outbreak and associated restrictions. They face immediate consequences in terms of reduced labor force, counterparties unable to deliver and own failure to deliver. In this phase, it is crucial for the business to be proactive and set out a plan to maintain operational operations and mitigate the risk. In a chaotic situation with unforeseen and complex consequences, one may easily react with panic ...
The legislator acts - Special regulations on, among other things, deferral of claims, insolvency law, tenancy law and loan agreements in Germany to come. At the end of March, the German legislator adopted special regulations in response to the COVID 19 pandemic in fast-track proceedings. The law was passed by the German parliament (Bundestag) on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, and, in a special session, also by the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) on Friday, 27 March, 2020 ...
Current status: March 31, 2020 Increasingly far-reaching restrictions with respect to the COVID-19 virus also bring to light the issue of timely drafting, auditing, adoption, and publication of annual and consolidated financial statements, in particular for listed companies. This against the background that capital market-oriented companies, i.e ...
General aspects The Chilean Agency for Economic Development (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción - "CORFO") has announced a series of amendments to its venture capital investment fund financing programs: Early Technological Stages Fund ("FET"), Early Stages Fund ("FT"), and Development and Growth Fund ("FC"). The most significant changes approved by CORFO are listed below, distinguishing between amendments common to all programs and those specific to each one ...
The background can be summarised simply: South Africa’s state broadcaster, the SABC, commissioned a filmmaker to make an investigative documentary for its factual genre TV channel. The filmmaker made the documentary and the SABC paid the fee (thus making it the owner of the copyright in the documentary under South African law). However, the SABC decided against airing the documentary ...
In this article, we’ll discuss three copyright-related stories that have made headlines and contain some interesting lessons. ED SHEERAN (YES, AGAIN) We recently discussed the well-publicised case where Ed Sheeran successfully fought off a UK High Court copyright claim relating to his song Shape of You. When the verdict was announced, Sheeran said that he hoped that there would be no more “baseless” copyright claims ...
A South African judgment dealing with joint ownership of copyright in databases has recently come to light. The judgment was handed down almost a year ago, but it seems to have slipped under the radar. This judgment will, however, be of interest to those involved in IP.The case is The Philanthropic Collection (Pty) Ltd v Girls & Boys South Africa ...
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 ...
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’ ...
A South African court has found that, for the purposes of fair dealing in copyright law, hyperlinks are a sufficient way of acknowledging source and ownership. The recent decision in the case of Moneyweb (Pty) Limited v Media 24 Limited and Another (unreported case no. 31575/2013, 5 May 2016) attracted a great deal of publicity. This is possibly because the two main parties are media companies ...
Two recent developments, one positive and one negative, highlight some of the serious issues that face copyright. The positive development is that UK courts have again shown that they are prepared to deal decisively with difficult copyright issues posed by the electronic age ...
Two recent high-profile cases involving popular songs have placed the spotlight on copyright issues. In the first of these, in California, a Los Angeles jury has decided that Led Zeppelin’s 1971 rock classic Stairway to Heaven did not infringe the copyright in a 1967 song called Spirit by the band Taurus. The case centred on the opening chord sequence in Stairway to Heaven, which the jury concluded was not “intrinsically similar” to the sequence in Spirit ...
On 24 November 2021 Shoosmiths hosted a webinar exploring recent developments and forthcoming changes in environmental regulation – the COP26 climate change conference, the Environment Act 2021 and trends in sentencing for environmental offences. COP26 David Symons, director of sustainability at WSP UK outlined the three main messages from the COP26 conference: The 1 ...
One method companies have of dealing with the crisis is to cooperate with their rivals. But before entering into such cooperation, it is worth examining whether it constitutes aconspiracy subject to sanctions from the national competition authority, the European Commission or other antitrust bodies ...
