Mondaq Business Briefing back issues from May 2007:
White Collar Fraud.
May 01, 2007; ... White collar fraud otherwise known as occupational fraud and abuse can affect any business from an SME through to a large multi-national company. All it takes is one person within the business to use their position for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misappropriation ...
U.S. Court Decision Clarifies Recognition Of Cayman Liquidations.
May 01, 2007 ... Introduction Since the decision of Judge Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in the case of In re SPhinX Ltd., et al, Chapter 15, Case No. 06-11760 ("SPhinX") in mid-2006, there has been justifiable cause for concern amongst Cayman ...
Piggybacking On China's Phenomenal Growth: Prospects For The Philippines.
May 01, 2007 ... China's market size, workforce, and economic power presents many opportunities for the Philippines. The late great United States Senator James E. Watson, in reference to his numerous battles in the august halls of the US Senate, once said, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" This ...
The Benefits Of Conformity.(International Financial Reporting Standards)
May 01, 2007; ... As communications companies across Asia Pacific continue down the path of transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), they face the same wide array of opportunities and challenges as other operators. On the plus side, they can learn from the prior experience of their ...
H-1B Lottery Held: Winners to Be Notified Soon.
May 01, 2007; ... U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that on Thursday, April 12th, a random selection process, or "lottery," was conducted to select the H-1B petitions that will be allowed to proceed to final processing under the numerical annual cap of 58,200 H-1Bs imposed by ...
Massachusetts Division Of Insurance Issues Notice Implementing The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act's "Insurance Nondiscrimination" Rule.
May 01, 2007 ... Over the past year, we have been focusing on those provisions of the Massachusetts health care reform act-Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, An Act Providing Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Health Care (the "Act")1-that affect employers. (Click here to access our Employers' Guide ...
OIG Advisory Opinion Approves Credit Card Rewards Program.(Office of the Inspector General)
May 01, 2007; ... On April 3, 2007, the Office of the Inspector General ("OIG") posted an Advisory Opinion (No. 07-03) regarding the use of rewards from credit card issuers for the benefit of a residential health care facility and its employees. The requestor proposed the use of credit cards, issued in the ...
FTC And DOJ Release Report On Antitrust Enforcement And Intellectual Property Rights.
May 01, 2007 ... On April 17, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice issued a long-awaited joint report on Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights. The 220-page Report is the result of years of research by the DOJ and FTC, including two dozen days of hearings in 2002, ...
National Competition Law Report - Q1 2007 - Switzerland.
May 01, 2007; ... Investigations Enquiry into Practices of Telekurs in the Payment Terminals Market Telekurs Multipay provides services permitting the payment of goods and services by credit and debit card. A feature of such services is "Dynamic Currency Conversion" or "DCC". This ...
Energy @ Gowlings - April 2007.
May 01, 2007; ... Edited by Paul Harricks Contents 2007 Federal Budget - Non-Tax 2007 Federal Budget - Tax 2007 Ontario Budget - Non-Tax 2007 Ontario Budget - Tax IESO - The Ontario Reliability Outlook 2007 Gowlings Lawyer ...
Offer For License Or Offer For Litigation?(MedImmune Inc. v. Genentech Inc.)(SanDisk Corp. v. STMicroelectronics Inc.)
May 01, 2007; ... The Good Old Days (for Patent Holders) For decades a patent owner has been free to correspond with potential licensees without the fear of a declaratory judgment action. A patent holder could contact a potential licensee and detail an infringement case, and despite these acts - ...
Top 10 Issues In Licensing Technology From Universities.
May 01, 2007; ... By Kingsley L. Taft and Laurie A. Burlingame Many successful products on the market today began as embryonic inventions in university research laboratories. Gene splicing, magnetic resonance imaging and atomic microscopy, for example, all had their beginnings in the university ...
Update On Global Efforts To Fight Movie Piracy.
May 01, 2007; ... Recent reports from the Motion Picture Association of America ("MPAA") calculate total losses to the studios from piracy at around $6 billion annually and total losses to the global motion picture industry (including domestic and foreign producers, distributors, theaters, video stores and ...
In Global IP Disputes - Don't Let Your Lawyers Slavishly Apply A Legal 'Test' - ("KSR v Teleflex" (2007) US Sup Crt).
May 01, 2007; ... Take home On 30 April 2007, the US Supreme Court handed down its long awaited (and unanimous) decision in KSR v Teleflex. Lawyers love bullet point tests that they can apply when advising clients about intellectual property. Such tests can readily become ingrained in ...
Will New Election Rules Increase Claims Against Public Authorities?
May 01, 2007; ... Local Government elections are taking place on 3 May 2007. New ward boundaries mean that of the 312 authorities in England over half have elections for all three council posts. Additional obligations imposed on local authorities and councils managing the election process by the new ...
Privilege, And This Time We Mean It.(Reynolds v Times Newspapers)
May 01, 2007; ... In 1999, the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Limited recognized a privilege defence for public interest journalism. Liberalising the law doesn't always achieve the desired effect, however, and in the more recent Jameel v Wall Street Journal their Lordships restated the ...
More Exceptions To Simple Rules In IP Strategy (US Supreme Court Says No To Extraterritoriality) - ("Microsoft V AT&T" (2007) US Supreme Court).
May 01, 2007; ... Take home On 30 April 2007, the US Supreme Court handed down its long awaited decision in Microsoft v AT&T. It's usually safe to assume that because IP rights must be granted by each country, then infringement of a particular IP Right can only occur in that country. ...
You Tube, You Lose?(YouTube Inc. and Viacom Inc., MySpace.com Inc. and Universal Music Australia Proprietary Ltd. cases for the copyright infringement )
May 01, 2007 ... Ask yourself this question the next time you press play to watch a video shared on the Web. It seems that the more we want to exchange information, news, and other entertainment on the Web, the more it becomes apparent that our Australian copyright laws may not let us do so. ...
New Model Code Of Conduct Order.(local governments new code of conduct order)
May 02, 2007; ... So it finally arrived. After a consultation running from 22 January to 9 March 2007, it eventually slipped quietly in beneath the radar of many in local government just before the Easter break on 4 April 2007 and will take effect on 3 May 2007. The 'it' in question is of course the Local ...
Bias,Tightrope-Walking And The Monitoring Officer.(cases of monitoring officer and counselors)
May 02, 2007; ... If a policeman's lot is not a happy one, it seems a monitoring officer's is not much better. As keeper of the corporate conscience the monitoring officer must advise fearlessly on the law the way s/he sees it. And doing so robustly (also known as 'biting the hand that feeds you') won't ...
Veil Threat Removed.(case of employee termination due to wearin of veil at workplace solved)
May 02, 2007; ... Kirklees Council has been praised by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). This was for the 'measured, careful and sensitive way' in which a headteacher and the Education Authority handled a difficult issue concerning a devout Muslim bi-lingual support worker (the employee) who had been ...
Freedom Of Information.(Freedom of Information Amendment (Open Government) Act 2000 (Draft) its application and evaluation)
May 02, 2007; ... Introduction The Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FoIA") came into force on 1 January 2005. It had a broad ambit, granting anyone living anywhere in the world the right to request information held in any form from more than 100,000 public and quasi public bodies. The Act was ...
Back To The Future - Exploring The Options For The 21st Century North Sea.(oil fields production data of North sea )
May 02, 2007 ... "A new breed of low cost operators had begun to move in and take on this ageing asset base which was failing to attract the level of investment required to sustain production." A few years ago, many thought the North Sea to be in terminal decline - at least from the point of ...
Internal Audit Controls Assurance - Adding Value And Controls Assurance In Social Housing.(Deloitte & Touche LLP )(Company overview)
May 02, 2007 ... "To support your annual Statement of Internal control, you need an effective Internal Audit Function which maximises assurance whilst adding value to operational processes." Deloitte & Touche LLP is the UK member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) - one of the world's largest ...
IAS 39 Modelling.(IAS 39 Financial Instruments Recognition and Measurement)
May 02, 2007 ... An example of evaluating the amount of risk and reward transferred and retained in a transfer in accordance with IAS 39 Financial Instruments Recognition and Measurement Measuring the relative amount of risk retained by the transferor will be key to determining the accounting ...
Obtaining Security For Costs: Piercing That Corporate Veil.
May 02, 2007 ... Security for costs can be viewed in two ways. Either it provides some degree of costs protection to those faced by claims from apparently impecunious companies or it is a device wielded against smaller companies designed to stifle genuine claims. Judge Coulson in the case of William Newman ...
2006 Year In Review: Abuse Of Dominance And Other Reviewable Practices, Marketing And Advertising And Other Developments.(Abuse of Dominance Provisions of the Competition Act)(anti-competitive act)
May 02, 2007; ... By Angela Di Padova, Huy A. Do, Mark A.A. Warner and Mark D. Magro ABUSE AND OTHER REVIEWABLE PRACTICES The Canada Pipe Case: New Life for the Abuse of Dominance Provisions of the Competition Act The Federal Court of Appeal discussed the appropriate ...
Composite Wood Products "Across-the-Board" Face New California Limits On Formaldehyde.
May 02, 2007 ... California has imposed stringent new limits on formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products and finished goods. The new standards will apply to manufacturers, distributors, importers, fabricators, and retailers. The regulations will cap emissions on all such products sold in ...
APRA Releases Final Prudential Standards And Guidance For Life Insurance.(Australia. Prudential Regulation Authority)
May 02, 2007 ... The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released final prudential standards and guidance on risk management and business continuity management for the life insurance industry, including friendly societies. The standards and practice guides will be effective ...
Tempted By "Deferred Prosecution"? Watch Out for Answered Prayers.(deferred prosecution agreement)
May 03, 2007 ... A deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA, seems to make a lot of sense for a company under investigation by federal prosecutors. Cooperate and the government may not go after you. Don't cooperate and it will. That's what Arthur Andersen learned after the collapse of Enron, a client. Before ...
Briefing Update: Mobile TV.
May 03, 2007; ... "Mobile TV" refers to the service that allows consumers to receive television and radio content on mobile phones and other portable devices. It is rapidly growing in popularity. This year has seen the results of some trials on mobile TV services that have been carried out by mobile ...
International Client Alert, April 2007.
May 03, 2007 ... Commerce Implements Some WTO Zeroing Findings The Department of Commerce ("DOC") recently concluded section 129 proceedings to recalculate the original dumping margins in 12 cases in order to implement a WTO Appellate Body decision on zeroing: Certain Hot-rolled Carbon Steel ...
Key Changes In Patent Reform Act Of 2007.
May 03, 2007 ... by David R. Bailey of Woodcock Washburn LLP The latest proposed patent reform legislation - the Patent Reform Act of 2007 - is a pared down version of the 2005 proposal, but still contains provisions that are likely to spark heated debate before making it out of committee for ...
The Delivery Challenge For The Next Government - From Targets To Engagement.(Company overview)
May 03, 2007 ... The delivery challenge for the next government Despite significant successes, the improvement in public services has lagged behind public perceptions. Deloitte believes that the conventional top-down target-driven approach has reached the limits of its effectiveness and a new ...
Latin American LNG Market Holds Both Risks And Rewards.(Industry overview)
May 03, 2007 ... Originally published in Oil and Gas Financial Journal, February 2007. Any deal structure should focus on defining all possible risks and weighing investment potential against the considerable risk factors. The LNG market in Latin America offers significant ...
Bad Law: The Legacy Of California's Botched Power Market.
May 03, 2007; ... This article was originally published in Electric, Light and Power, April 2007. Law school professors routinely assign judicial decisions for analysis that achieved notoriety before being decided, or surrounding which the competing equities seemed to clash with rote application ...
Conditions Becoming Favorable For U.S. Nuclear Power Plants.
May 03, 2007; ... This article was originally published in Houston Business Journal, March 2007. The changes that have already taken place mean that the questions now becomes one of how big the upsurge in nuclear power will be and how soon will it begin. The United States was at the ...
Precautions That Pay Off - Risk Management And Valuation Practices In The Global Hedge Fund Industry.
May 03, 2007 ... Foreword The hedge fund industry is at a crossroads. It has undergone tremendous growth, but with growth has come growing pains. Competition has become more intense; an increasing percentage of new investments is coming from funds of hedge funds and institutional investors, ...
Don't Dilute The Value Of Your Trade Mark.
May 03, 2007; ... and Joycia Young In this Intellectual Property Update we consider whether minor amendments and changes might be diluting the value of your company's trade mark in the long term. We examine the legal implications of changes to your trade mark and reflect on some ...
Transmission Of Business Under WorkChoices.
May 03, 2007; ... Introduction The Federal Government's new workplace relations laws, introduced by the Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Act 2005, came into force amid much fanfare on 27 March 2006. WorkChoices substantially amends the Workplace Relations Act 1996 ("the ...
Pentagon Formally Proposes Limits On "Predatory Lending" To Soldiers.
May 03, 2007; ... On April 11, the U.S. Department of Defense ("DOD") published proposed regulations prohibiting certain lending practices directed at members of the Armed Forces and their dependents. The Secretary of Defense must promulgate a final regulation prior to October 1, 2007, and, therefore, is ...
U.S. House Committee Holds Hearings Regarding Industrial Bank Legislation.(Company overview)
May 03, 2007 ... Contents U.S. House Committee Holds Hearings Regarding Industrial Bank Legislation FRB Proposes Amendments to Five Regulations to Clarify Requirements for Electronic Consumer Disclosures FinCEN Delays Implementation of Revised SAR Forms SEC ...
Positive Progress For International Equity Markets.
May 03, 2007 ... International equity markets, as measured in US Dollars by the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index (MSCI), made positive progress during most of the first quarter of 2007, gaining 2.06%. Currency movements continued to play an important role for internationally diversified ...
Supreme Court Extends Federal Preemption To National Bank Operating Subsidiaries.
May 03, 2007; ... In a 5-to-3 decision announced April 17, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal preemption of state regulatory laws applies to national banks' operating subsidiaries to the same extent as it applies to national banks themselves. The ruling is a major victory for the Office of the ...
Data Retention Directive.
May 03, 2007; ... This article first appeared in the April edition of Data Protection Law & Policy, published by Cecile Park Publishing Ltd. 1. Introduction This article provides a brief explanation of the key provisions of the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC (the "Directive"1) and ...
Bond Markets Fare Better In US Compared To Europe.
May 03, 2007; ... Global Fixed Interest Bond markets have fared better in the US than those in Europe or the UK, as renewed fears of stalling economic growth suggest that the Federal Reserve may be forced to ease monetary policy as soon as this summer. More robust data this side of the Atlantic ...
Landlords, CVAs And The Powerhouse Case - The Judgement.(company voluntary arrangement)
May 03, 2007; ... We have been keeping you informed of progress of the challenge to the Powerhouse CVA by a number of high profile landlords. The High Court ruled today,1 May 2007 that the CVA proposed was fundamentally flawed because it "unfairly prejudiced" rights of those landlords against Powerhouse's ...
Court Of Appeal Refuses Summary Enforcement Of Adjudicator's Decision.(summary judgement in Lead Technical Services Ltd. vs CMS Medical Ltd. case)
May 03, 2007 ... There are exceptional cases where adjudicators' decisions are not readily enforced by the courts. These include where it is appears that the wrong body appointed the adjudicator, or the adjudicator decided a dispute under the wrong construction contract. In Lead Technical ...
Oops I Did It Again! - Supreme Court Reverses Federal Circuit, This Time On Obviousness.(KSR International v. Teleflex Inc.)
May 03, 2007; ... On April 30, 2007, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court issued its holding in KSR International v. Teleflex, reversing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision that the patent at issue was not invalid for obviousness. In doing so, the Supreme Court reviewed the Federal ...
The Legend Of The Golden Master Lives On-Supreme Court Limits The Reach Of s.271(f).(Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp.)
May 03, 2007; ... Continuing a string of reversals of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decisions, on April 30, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court once again reversed the Federal Circuit in Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. Justice Ginsberg delivered the opinion of the Court, with Justices Alito, Thomas ...
Review Of The SEC Proposed Amendments To The Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility Rules.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 03, 2007 ... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published for comment proposed amendments to various broker-dealer financial responsibility rules.1 Comments on the proposed amendments are due on or before May 18, 2007. A more detailed summary of the proposed amendments can be found at ...
Perspective: Even In Net Litigation, It's All About Location.
May 03, 2007 ... The Web site DontDateHimGirl.com allows women to make anonymous postings about specific men. So it was that a defamation lawsuit got filed with respect to statements made on the site about one particular man. But the case was just dismissed for failure of personal jurisdiction, ...
Major Changes To Australia's Foreign Investment Screening Requirements.
May 04, 2007 ... Foreign investors in Australia should be aware of recent regulations which have raised the examination thresholds under the country's Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (FATA). The FATA gives the Treasurer, acting on the advice of the Foreign Investments Review Board, ...
ATO Changes View On Construction Withholding Tax.(Australian Taxation Office )
May 04, 2007 ... The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a ruling (TR 2006/12) which explains its view of the operation of the construction withholding tax provisions. What is construction withholding tax? Construction withholding tax was introduced in 2004. It applies to ...
On Same Day, Supreme Court Renders Two Important Patent Decisions: Clarifying Standard For Obviousness And Extraterritorial Reach Of U.S. Patents.(KSR International Co. vs. Teleflex Inc.)(Microsoft Corp. vs. AT&T Corp.)(patent infringement cases)
May 04, 2007 ... Supreme Court Rejects Rigid Application of "Teaching, Suggestion, or Motivation" Test in Favor of Expansive and Flexible Approach to Obviousness Inquiry KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., et al., No. 04-1350 In an April 30, 2007 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ...
Misleading Investors - The Royal Court Of Jersey Delivers An Important Judgment.(United Kingdom. Financial Services Commission)
May 04, 2007 ... In Jersey Financial Services Commission v Alternate Insurance Services Limited & Others [2007] JRC048 the Royal Court of Jersey (Commissioner R Southwell QC and Jurats Le Brocq and Georgelin) delivered a very significant judgment concerning certain of the provisions in the Financial ...
Recent Developments In Immigration Law.
May 04, 2007; ... USCIS Announces H-1B Cap Has Been Reached As reported in our previous Alert, on April 3, 2007, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, due to extreme demand, the H-1B cap for Fiscal Year 2008 was reached. Annually, 65,000 new H-1B visas are made ...
The Federal Circuit Jettisons Reasonable Apprehension DJ Standard In Light Of Medimmune.
May 04, 2007 ... Reacting to a footnote comment in the Supreme Court's recent decision in MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., (IP Update Vol. 10, No. 1) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reversed two district court cases granting dismissals of declaratory judgment actions. SanDisk ...
District Courts Have Broad Discretion To Hear A Declaratory Judgment Action.(Cellco Partnership v. Broadcom Corp.)
May 04, 2007; ... Heralding the SanDisk and Teva cases (issued shortly after Cellco), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's decision to dismiss the declaratory judgment action filed by Cellco Partnership, while at the same time concluding that the district court ...
Prosecution Victory Leads To Litigation Defeat.(Liebel-Flarsheim Co. v. Medrad Inc.)
May 04, 2007; ... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant, holding the patent in suit invalid for lack of enablement and anticipation. Liebel-Flarsheim Co. v. Medrad, Inc., Case Nos. 06-1156, -1157 (Fed. Cir., Mar. 22, ...
Final Section 409A Regulations and Severance Pay.
May 04, 2007 ... Introduction The IRS recently published final regulations under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Final Regulations"). As interpreted by the Final Regulations, Section 409A applies to many types of plans and agreements, including in particular severance plans and ...
FERC Approves CAISO Financing Mechanism Removing Barriers To Renewable Resources.(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, California Independent System Operator Corporation)
May 04, 2007; ... Originally published in Powell Goldstein LLP's Energy Alert, May 2007 On April 19, 2007, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") granted the California Independent System Operator Corporation's ("CAISO") petition for a declaratory order approving CAISO's proposed ...
CMS Clarifies Emergency Services Requirements For Hospitals.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
May 04, 2007; ... Originally published in Powell Goldstein LLP's Health Alert, May 2007 On April 26, 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memorandum to state survey agency directors clarifying the regulatory requirements for hospitals' emergency capabilities. ...
Patents Now Harder To Get, Easier To Invalidate.
May 04, 2007 ... The United States Constitution gave Congress the power to grant patents to promote the progress of science and useful arts. On Monday, the Supreme Court, overruling precedent from the Federal Circuit, made clear that in order to promote such progress, routine improvements cannot receive ...
Antitrust Agencies Release Intellectual Property Report, Cover Little New Ground.
May 04, 2007 ... Nearly five years after they held joint hearings on the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have issued a report on the topic. Although touted as providing the first insight into the agencies' views since their 1995 ...