Did you know? China’s new patent law, which comes into effect on 1 June 2021, will significantly change the design patent regime and will see the introduction of partial design protection, the extension of the design patent term from 10 years to 15 years and the acceptance of domestic Chinese design patent filings as a basis for priority ...
On 17 November 2006, the Beijing First Intermediate Court rejected the copyright infringement claim made by seven music companies, namely Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, Universal, Gold Label, Go East and Cinepoly, against NASDAQ-listed Baidu.com. The music companies which owned the copyright, alleged that the MP3 search service of Baidu.com allowed users to freely download 137 songs and sought an injunction as well as damages in the amount of RMB1,690,000 ...
On December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) of the People’s Republic of China passed the Resolution of the Standing Committee of the NPC Relating to Strengthening the Protection of Information on the Internet (the “Regulations”). The Regulations contain significant and far-reaching requirements applicable to the collection and processing of electronic personal information via the Internet ...
The Court of Québec released an interesting judgment recently in a case involving civil liability and personal injury.1 Plaintiff, Ms. Bourgault, went to Village Vacances Valcartier (“VVV”) to take part in a snow rafting activity. During a descent, she was twice thrown toward the rear of the inflatable boat. The violent impacts caused her to break a vertebra. She sued VVV for damages arising out of the incident ...
In Belgium, although a sportsman is deemed to accept the normal risks linked to the exercise of his sport, he can claim damages for injuries inflicted on him by another player, to the extent that the perpetrator failed to meet the standard of general due diligence.1 The action of the player causing the injury is measured against the behaviour that would have been displayed by another reasonable sportsman placed under the same conditions ...
Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Laurent Piau v. European Commission (Case T-194/02) of 26 January 2005 In its judgment of 26 January 2005 in case Laurent Piau v. European Commission, the Court of First Instance (hereinafter the “CFI”) ruled on compliance of the regulation issued by the Fédération Internationale de Football Associations (hereinafter the “FIFA”) concerning the occupation of football players’ agents with the provisions of the EC Treaty on competition ...
UK and EU competition law provides that retailers must be free to determine their own resale prices. Actions by suppliers to restrict this freedom by dictating a fixed or minimum resale price are prohibited. The UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has vigorously enforced the law in this area, regularly pursuing investigations into and ultimately imposing fines on suppliers who engage in resale price maintenance ...
The Gambling Policy Division of the Irish Department of Justice has joined 14 other gambling regulators from around the globe in signing an International Declaration expressing concern about gambling in video games. The regulators presented a united front in addressing the "blurring of lines between gambling and other forms of digital entertainment". The increasing presence of gambling in the video gaming world has been raised as a growing concern ...
Russian State Labour Inspectorate (GIT): An employer may impose disciplinary sanction on an employee for disclosing a colleague's salary GIT received a question whether an employer can punish an employee who, ****without the consent**** of a colleague, ****disclosed their salary**** ...
The Russian government has approved draft amendments to the Russian Criminal Code that increase the severity of punishment for leaks of personal data (“PD”) The amendments have changed slightly compared with the version adopted in the first reading ...
Moratorium on inspections of companies may be canceled from 01 January 2025 This is the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation, announced during his address to the Federal Assembly. If the moratorium is abolished, a ****risk-oriented approach**** is expected to be introduced: employers will be checked according to ****risk indicators****, and if there are no risks, inspectors will carry out ****preventive visits**** ...
Ministry of Labour: Employers may discipline employees for disclosing a colleague’s salary Earlier, we informed about the position of the GIT of the Nizhny Novgorod Region that if the employer’s ****local policy**** prohibits the ****disclosure**** of the ****salary**** of other employees, then employees who view another employee’s pay slip and disclose his/her salary may be ****disciplined**** ...
Government Commission approves positive review of draft law on turnover fines for leaks of personal data (“PD”) We previously informed you about the draft law that would impose ****turnover fines for PD leaks****, as well as fines for the failure to ****notify the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (“Roskomnadzor”) about the intention to process PD**** and the illegal transfer (****leak****) of PD ...
The Presidential Administration has not approved amendments to the second reading of the draft law on turnover fines for personal data (“PD”) leaks Despite the positive review of the draft law from the Government Commission, the State Legal Department of the President has prepared a ****negative review**** of the draft law on ****turnover fines**** for businesses for ****PD leaks**** ...
The Federation Council clarified how the Russian Digital Code will look like Work on the ****Digital Code****, which will become the basis for legal regulation of relations in the field of ****information**** and ****digital technologies****, will take at least another ****year****, and a significant part of the future document is planned to be devoted to the protection of ****personal**** and ****biometric data**** ...
The State Duma will consider a draft law on the possibility for the plaintiff to receive personal data (“PD”) of the defendant Amendments are planned to be made to the ****Civil Procedure Code**** of the Russian Federation. It is proposed to grant the plaintiff the right to file a ****motion**** to the court for assistance in ****establishing information about the defendant****, which is necessary to file a claim in court, but the plaintiff does not have ...
Ban on foreign information security services from “unfriendly” jurisdictions Decree No. 250 of the Russian President dated 1 May 2022 “On Additional Measures to Ensure the Information Security of the Russian Federation” previously imposed restrictions on the ****use of foreign information security means**** ...
On January 17, 2023, the Senate approved the that sought to postpone the entry into force of the amendments introduced to the Mining Code by Article 10 of Law 21,420 (the "Bill 15,511-08"). This concludes the legislative process of Bill 15,511-08, as the House of Representatives had already approved this bill on January 5, 2023. Now, the initiative will be sent to the President of the Republic for its promulgation and subsequent publication in the Official Gazette in order to be enacted ...
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The $2 trillion bipartisan legislation serves as a third round of federal government support in the wake of the economic fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Among other things, the Act provides significant relief to air carriers and aviation employees. We outline some of the key provisions below ...
Strong contracting processes and communications which establishes clearly the expectations of each of the parties reduces disputes and costs and strengthens relationships. The key to strong contracting processes is to approach contracts in a holistic manner making sure all documents interconnect in a logical uniform manner. Because manufacturing processes can be complex, this is often not as easy as it sounds ...
As a part of our conversation with clients webinar series, Helen Wilson, Head of Legal at Weetabix joined Sebastian Price, Partner at Shoosmiths to talk about her experience of career development including success insights, job changes, individual versus organisational impact on progression and more ...
From re-sharing cat videos to creating memes, tweaks in our three-decade-old Copyright Act will help clarify what’s permissible and what’s verboten as we continue to indulge in our insatiable appetite for social media. Chinese New Year Eve, 2019. Social media was ablaze with a viral video (YouTube link) of an altercation between a Malay Gojek driver and his Chinese passenger objecting to a route that would incur ERP charges ...
Remember Nirvana? There have been reports about an interesting copyright infringement case involving the grunge band Nirvana, a band that is still associated by many with frontman Kurt Cobain. Yet this case does not involve music copyright. Rather it deals with copyright in an artistic work, a drawing. How about Dante’s Inferno? The case has been brought by a lady called Jocelyn Susan Bundy. Bundy is the granddaughter of C.W. Scott-Giles, a heraldry expert who died in 1982 ...
