On November 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reached a settlement in a landmark case, which provided structural changes for nonimmigrant H-4 and L-2 spouses seeking employment authorization. On November 12, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued policy guidance to address the outcome of this historic settlement agreement. USCIS has highlighted the following major policy changes: Automatic Extension of Existing Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) The new policy provides that certain H-4, E, or L-2 dependent spouses qualify for...

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NFTs: disruption or speculation? At the latest since NFTs worth more than USD 2.5 billion were traded in the first half of 2021 and numerous participants — including start-ups, large corporations, artists and sports teams and leagues — entered the extremely dynamic market, questions have arisen regarding the legal classification of NFTs. Therefore, the following overview aims to introduce the topic and its the legal aspects with a particular focus on copyright issues. Background Tokenisation of assets on a blockchain In concrete...

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November 11, 2021 | Zugerstrasse 50, 6341 Baar, Switzerland | MBCC Group is one of the most recognized companies in construction chemicals worldwide with sales of approximately CHF 2.9 billion (EUR 2.7 billion) Enterprise value of CHF 5.5 billion represents a 11.5x EV/pro forma 2022E EBITDA multiple with expected annual synergies of CHF 160 – 180 million bringing the multiple down to 8.5x EV/EBITDA Transaction is highly complementary across almost all of Sika’s core technologies, applications, and solutions Acquisition...

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The EACC, in partnership with the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), wants to keep its members up to date with the latest developments in property taxes in the USA and Europe. IPTI has put together below a selection of articles from IPTI Xtracts; more articles can be found on its website (www.ipti.org). UNITED STATES New York: NYC Property Values in Limbo Amid Market Changes? The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown New York City property valuations into a complete vortex where nothing makes sense...

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The past few years in the government contracting space has seen significant changes: from the recently passed infrastructure bill and its $1.2 trillion infusion for the modernization of the country’s rapidly aging infrastructure, to the heightened need for protections from hackers and ransomware “kidnappers” to the use of cloud computing and storage systems. These are issues that impact not only public contracts but commercial business and the public as a whole. The government continues to work to react to...

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On November 3, 2021, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, gave remarks at the American Fintech Counsel's "Fintech Policy Summit 2021" and called for "leveling up banking and finance" to address regulatory issues and risks posed by "synthetic banking providers" in the fintech and crypto industry. "Crypto firms today are regulated at most only partially and selectively, with no single regulator having a comprehensive view of the firm as a whole."1Addressing the regulatory issues and risks in the fintech and...

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At Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP, we proactively address intellectual property issues related to our clients’ Duty of Disclosure to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Under the Duty of Disclosure, the Patent Office requires applicants to disclose any publicly available references, known as “prior art,” which may be relevant to the patent application. Compliance with this duty strengthens a patent by placing all known relevant prior art in front of the examiner. Examiners typically will sign or initial...

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Google has lost an appeal against a €2.4BN fine from the EU for giving preferential treatment to its own shopping service and demoting rivals in search results. The fine, handed down by the European Commission in 2017 has been upheld after a lengthy appeal. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager sanctioned the internet search engine in 2017 for favouring its own price-comparison shopping service, giving it an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals. This fine was the first of a trio of...

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