A judgment “peppad” with advice A recent South African court decision neatly summarises some of the major issues that need to be considered when comparing trade marks in South Africa. In the case of Dinnermates (Tvl) CC v Piquante Brands International (Pty) Ltd and Another, the facts were that a company applied to register the trade mark PEPPAMATE and a device depicting a pepper with a stalk in classes 29, 30 and 31 ...
English High Court considers whether there was good consideration for an oral variation of a settlement agreement related to sale of valuable antique textiles. Sometime in the spring of 2014 two Iranian businessmen and antiquities dealers, London based Mr. Shavleyan and LA resident Mr. Simantob, kissed and shook hands on a deal about the payment of the balance of a debt due under a 2010 settlement agreement ...
There are few things more important today than lawyers willing to serve their communities - whether its people of color or immigrants or anyone pursuing freedom of speech, religion or from oppression. We’re living in extraordinary times. The ability to earn a legal education and serve a greater good has rarely been more important than it is today. My law school''s library and classrooms were my home away from home ...
phttps://www.huntonak.com/images/content/8/5/v2/85478/a-look-at-cybersecuritys-federal-legal-landscape ...
Peter de Boisblanc, HUB International, also contributed to this article. The economic downturn engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic likely will lead to a significant increase in acquisitions of distressed targets. Representation and warranty (“R&W”) insurance policies as well as related insurance products can facilitate these transactions ...
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is not a stranger to the False Claims Act. In her eight years as a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia, before she was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021, she handled at least two FCA cases — one about a federal grant recipient and one about a government contractor. Her decisions in these cases show a meticulous and thorough approach, with particular attention to pleading standards ...
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was enacted in 1996 to provide websites with immunity from liability arising from posting third-party content. For a service provider to be immune, however, the information at issue must be provided by another information content provider. This begs the question of whether website operators provide the content on their platforms or act solely as intermediaries for third-party content ...
The stock market is undoubtedly one of the most important economic forces in the world. Every year, billions of dollars are moved through stock exchange operations, and year after year, in most jurisdictions, the stock market is promoted as a tool for financing or capturing capital for issuers and as an investment for thousands of participants seeking to place their funds in higher yield investments ...
Trends in leasehold transactions during 2021 and expectations for 2022. Now that the decorations are back in the loft, retailers are announcing their Christmas trading updates. There is a general consensus that the retail sector had a difficult time in 2021 as has been the trend in modern years and whilst some retailers will be announcing positive news to the markets, there are undoubtably some that are likely to continue to have a challenging time in 2022 ...
As a private equity (PE) lawyer whose bread and butter is doing transactions for PE clients it is fair to say that 2023 felt somewhat different to the years preceding it. Stating the obvious, much of this is macro: continuing (and worsening) economic headwinds, driving rising interest rates, in turn making access to third party debt more challenging and hitting balance sheets of potential investment targets ...
Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice ("CJEU") has thrown out an appeal by Nestlé, which argued that it owns the shape of its famous treat KitKat. Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, has spent more than a decade fighting to trademark the four-fingered wafer shape. However, EJC's most recent ruling could bring an end to the snack's protected European status ...
We are all facing an unprecedented event in our lives with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus. Although we are COVID-19 free, we are implementing precautionary and contingency measures to protect the safety and welfare of everyone at the Firm, and those who are connected to the Firm. Effective 16 March 2020, we have been implementing a work-from-home system ...
December 2023 By: David J. Elkanich and Amber Bevacqua-Lynott There is no question that the practice of law has evolved over the past decade. At one time, lawyers would meet mostly with clients in person in their “brick and mortar” offices, and would principally represent clients in their home jurisdiction (where the client was physically located and where the lawyer is licensed). But times have changed ...
Business owners grudgingly accept lawsuits as a part of doing business. If you’re doing what it takes to advance your business, you will suffer the bumps and bruises that will result in your name on a legal pleading. You may even be the one who files the lawsuit.Almost any money you can recover in a lawsuit is eaten up by lost employee time, and, perhaps more importantly, the business owner’s loss of focus on healthy profits. If you are the one sued, you can never win ...
A new BIG GUARANTEE SCHEME was introduced in Slovakia in a form of (i) guarantees for bank loansand (ii) remissions of guarantee premiums as per new Temporary Framework for State aid recently adopted by the European Commission to support the economy in COVID-19 outbreak and via adoption of an amendment (the “Amendment”) to Act No. 67/2020 Coll ...
Six months from now, companies, and equally so other employers, are expected to offer a cogent system for the receipt and settlement of reports regarding illegal or unethical practices. ‹‹“Minimal” may be sufficient and “maximal” may prove not to serve the purpose›› says Adriana I ...
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is implementing a series of measures designed to enhance and encourage cooperation in its investigations and litigation and, the Division hopes, expedite the enforcement program. This project is referred to as the “Cooperation Initiative ...
phttps://www.huntonak.com/images/content/9/2/v2/92742/a-new-era-the-eu-us-data-privacy-framework ...
The Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance (LPFO), which provides for registration of eligible funds as limited partnership funds (LPFs) in Hong Kong, will come into operation on 31 August 2020. The enactment of the LPFO is a very welcome development, and is part the Hong Kong government’s stated aim to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong in becoming a preferred centre for international asset and wealth managers in Asia ...
For the first time, the Nasdaq has allowed common shares of a Canadian cannabis cultivator, Cronos Group Inc., to be cross-listed on the Nasdaq Global Market. This cross-listing for Cronos (TSX-V: MJN; Nasdaq: CRON) marks the first time a cannabis cultivator was allowed to list on any U.S. exchange. In 2015 and 2016, Nasdaq famously rejected the Colorado cannabis-focused social media company MassRoots Inc ...
Recently, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted a new set of voluntary standards, designated as ISO 37001, to assist organizations in their ongoing fight against bribery. As a result of recent increases in the enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and, notwithstanding the guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Resource Guide to the U.S ...
In M&K Holdings, Inc., v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., 2020-1160 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 1, 2021), the Federal Circuit found that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by finding a patent claim unpatentable using a “markedly” different theory from the one the patent challenger presented. In this case, the patent challenger (i.e ...
I’ve had a number of queries recently about agricultural tenancies where a partnership is the tenant rather than an individual. This can often give rise to problems and I thought that it would be worthwhile spending some time looking at some of the issues that can arise and how they might be resolved. First of all, in Scots law, a partnership is a separate legal person in its own right quite distinct from the individual partners in the partnership ...
‘A whole new planning system for England’ is what Boris Johnson was promising in his introduction to the Planning White Paper. He also took a sideswipe at the current system for providing “nowhere near enough homes in the right places” ...
