On Friday, December 2, 2011, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association ("ISDA") and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA") jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") and a petition for review in the U.S ...
On March 24, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or the “Commission”) unanimously approved its final interpretive guidance (“Final Guidance”) regarding retail commodity transactions involving certain digital assets ...
On September 9, 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) issued CFTC Letter No. 14-116 (the “CFTC Letter”) providing exemptive relief allowing commodity pools to use general solicitation in certain types of private offerings, including offerings of private fund interests. The CFTC Letter is available here ...
CFTC Issues No-Action Relief to September 1, 2017 for Variation Margin Rule for Uncleared Swaps, But for Swap Dealers under Prudential Regulators’ VM Rule the March 1, 2017 Deadline Remains On February 13, 2017, the Staff of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued time-limited no-action relief (Letter No ...
Under newly enacted Section 1400Z of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), beginning on December 22, 2017, taxpayers may defer, and in some cases partially eliminate, capital gains by making certain investments in “qualified opportunity zones.” A qualified opportunity zone is a “population census tract” in a state designated low-income community ...
The Obama-appointed NLRB has now issued its first significant batch of decisions1 serving notice, as is typical in the transition from one administration to the next, of a shift in the interpretation of the labor laws. The decisions include a new standard regarding secondary boycotts and union bannering; potential reconsideration of prior precedent; and a differing application of the law to facts than the predecessor NLRB ...
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published its first major update to the rules for trademark trials and appeals in nearly a decade. The final changes to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) Rules of Practice appear in the October 7, 2016 Federal Register (81 Fed. Reg. 69950) and are scheduled to go into effect on January 14, 2017 ...
Last week, a Decree was published in the Official Journal of the Federation that amended, supplemented, and repealed various provisions of the Federal Competition Law (Ley Federal de Competencia Económica), the Federal Penal Code (Código Penal Federal) and the Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación) (collectively, the “Decree”) in the area of antitrust regulation. The most significant aspects of the reforms are the following: 1 ...
It starts with the best of intentions: A startup medical device company has just sold to a larger enterprise with an established sales team and customer base and no longer needs distributors. A consumer packaged goods company has just bought a brand and needs to transition to a new team of brokers. A growing company is finally ready to take its supply chain captive, including the distribution of products to customers, and no longer needs small distributors or sales representatives ...
Comment letters to oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) companies by the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated several major areas of concern for the Division during 2017 regarding companies’ disclosures. Many of the topics addressed were similar to those raised by the Division’s staff in 2015-2016, but some were new, such as the staff’s focus on non-U.S ...
Employers are now confronted with the next COVID-19 challenge: safely bringing employees back to work. The recent federal guidelines for “Opening Up America Again” specifically refer to recommended practices for employers ...
As more employers re-open or are in the process of re-opening for business, they are following the current guidance for preventing the spread of coronavirus infection in the workplace by, among others, ensuring good hygiene practices, requiring social distancing, and screening employees for the COVID-19 illness ...
While the world contends with the COVID-19 crisis and its economic and financial impact, China is quietly opening its doors to its financial sector, inviting more foreign financial institutions, banks, insurance providers and other financial service companies to set up shop in China. On March 27, the Chinese government granted approval for both The Goldman Sachs Group Inc ...
On June 30, the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (the “NPC”) unanimously passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Hong Kong National Security Law” or “Law”), which became effective at 23:00 Beijing time on the same day. The Law was first introduced on May 28, 2020 via a unanimous resolution of the NPC ...
On August 12, 2020, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (“State Council”) released theCircular on Further Stabilizing Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment(the “Circular”), in which the Chinese government announced 15 policies aiming to protect foreign trade entities and to keep supply chains stable against the economic fallout of the unabated COVID-19 pandemic. A few key points of the Circular include: 1 ...
On June 11, 2020, the General Administration of Customs (“GAC”) released the Measures for the Administration of Imported and Exported Food Safety [draft] (General Administration of Customs of People's Republic of China, 2020) (“Draft Law”) to solicit public comments until July 11, 2020 ...
Moving faster than many expected, the National People’s Congress of China promulgated the amended Food Safety Law (“2015 Food Safety Law”) on April 24, 2015. The 2015 Food Safety Law will be effective on October 1, 2015. The 2015 Food Safety Law is regarded as the most stringent food safety regulation in the history of China ...
On April 21, 2015, the State Council of China (i.e. the central government) adopted the proposed draft of Administrative Measures on Concession of Infrastructure and Public Utilities Projects (the “Infrastructure Measures”) ...
On January 21, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the restrictions on corporate expenditures encompassed in the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act). The 5-4 opinion found the Act’s prohibition on the use of general treasury funds by corporations or unions to directly advocate the election or defeat of candidates or to broadcast electioneering communications ran afoul of the First Amendment’s established protections of free speech ...
The impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe remains a significant concern in every aspect of business – and the representation and warranty (R&W) insurance market is no different. The following Frequently Asked Questions are designed to address some of the more common questions that have arisen since the outbreak of the pandemic.As always, advice in this area is fact-sensitive ...
CLS Bank and Bancorp: Back to Back Federal Circuit Decisions Offer Different Conclusions on Patentability 08/03/2012 Richard D. Rochford, Casey H. Kempner The issue of whether particular inventions include “patent eligible” subject matter under § 101 of the patent statute has become highly controversial in recent years, raising questions with high economic stakes and profound legal and philosophical implications. Twice the Supreme Court has entered the fray, first in Bilski v ...
CMS and OIG Finalize Waivers for ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program Effective October 29, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS” or “the Department”) finalized the waivers of certain fraud and abuse laws to specified arrangements involving accountable care organizations (“ACOs”) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (“MSSP”) ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) have responded to the U.S. Senate’s request for information on physician-owned distributorships (PODs). Earlier this summer, a bi-partisan U.S. Senate committee asked CMS and the OIG to study the proliferation of PODs, citing a lack of regulatory guidance on how these arrangements square with existing federal law ...
Federal and state agencies continue to deliver tools and information to help healthcare providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic since the President declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency. The declaration gave the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) authority to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of federal healthcare programs ...
With the recent announcement to extend the waivers of certain fraud and abuse laws for accountable care organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), ACOs can continue using the waivers in their current form - at least for now ...
