Member News, News

Austria in the leading group of EU patents

Austrian companies are innovative and are applying for an increasing number of patents. In 2013 the number of patent applications from Austria submitted to the European Patent Office rose by 6.5 percent. Accordingly, Austria ranks among the best in terms of inventiveness. On balance, 1,995 patent applications had their origin in Austria last year. Samsung once again led the individual company rankings. The South Korean mobile telephony group submitted 2,833 applications in 2013 to the European Patent Office, followed by...

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Member News, News

Paris PR Firm IDENIUM Signs Partnership with OpenCommunications Omnimedia

Paris and New York (PRWEB) March 11, 2014 Paris and New York PR Firms Collaborate to Serve Media Clients with International Communications Needs. Paris-based IDENIUM, a public relations firm serving clients in the advertising, entertainment and media industry, announced today a new partnership agreement with New York-based OpenCommunications Omnimedia, a PR and digital content-creation company likewise specialized in the digital advertising and media field. As part of the agreement, OpenCommunications will be the official representative of IDENIUM in the United States...

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Chapter News, News

European Parliament backs Commission proposal for the EU co-financing of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB)

The European Parliament has today backed the European Commission’s proposal on co-financing the IFRS Foundation, EFRAG and the PIOB, three organisations that play a key role in the development of accounting and auditing standards.  Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said "High-quality, international financial reporting and auditing rules are of vital importance not only for transparency, comparability and the smooth functioning of capital markets, but also for the economy at large. The support of the European Parliament to renew the...

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Chapter News, News

MEPs tighten up rules to protect personal data in the digital era

European Parliament MEPs inserted stronger safeguards for EU citizens’ personal data that gets transferred to non-EU countries in a major overhaul of the EU’s data protection laws voted on Wednesday. The new rules aim both to give people more control over their personal data and to make it easier for firms to work across borders, by ensuring that the same rules apply in all EU member states. MEPs also increased the fines to be imposed on firms that break...

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Chapter News, News

U.S. Objectives, U.S. Benefits In the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A Detailed View

In June 2013, President Obama, European Council President Van Rompuy and European Commission President Barroso announced that the United States and the European Union (EU) would launch negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) agreement.  The T-TIP is intended to be an ambitious and comprehensive trade agreement that significantly expands trade and investment between the United States and the EU, increases economic growth, jobs, and international competitiveness, and addresses global issues of common concern.  For the full...

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Member News, News

Pepper Hamilton Client Alert: Supreme Court Holds that Courts Must Defer to Arbitrators in First Case Addressing International Investment Treaty Arbitration

On March 5, 2014, the United States Supreme Court decided BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina, the first case in which the Court addressed an international investment treaty arbitration (a case between a private investor and a sovereign nation). In a 7-2 decision, the Court reversed a prior decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and reinstated a $185.3 million award against Argentina. The Court held that the D.C. Circuit was not entitled...

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Chapter News, News

EU-US Trade Talks – 4th Round to start in Brussels on Monday 10 March

A fourth round of EU-US trade talks will kick off in Brussels this coming Monday, 10 March 2014. The talks will help pave the way for a future trade and investment deal, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. Negotiators will discuss different aspects of the agreement, including: trade in services; public procurement; rules of origin; technical barriers to trade; agriculture; and customs and trade facilitation. Stakeholder outreach – Wednesday 12 March In tandem with next week's talks, the...

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Member News, News

Pepper Hamilton Client Alert: When Is an iPad More than an iPad? When It Is an FDA Regulated Medical Device

In the late 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began publicly suggesting that electronic medical records were within its jurisdiction. A lot has changed in 20+ years. The proliferation of mobile computing platforms and the applications they run has exploded. Health care providers have access to technology that was the stuff of science fiction in 1989, and health care consumers can track their own health status and records with the swipe of a finger. On September 25, 2013, the...

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Member News, News

February Payoff Report: Percentage of Loans Paying at Maturity Dips Again

The percentage of loans paying off on their balloon date was 68.8% in February. This was the third straight month in which the rate declined. The payoff rate was 71.3% in January, 76.5% in December, and 81.3% in November. The latter was the highest rate in the last five years. (Trepp began measuring this statistic in August 2008.) The February payoff percentage is the same as the 12-month moving average of 68.8%. This number sums the averages of each...

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Chapter News, News

EU-US trade talks to continue next week in Brussels

A fourth round of EU-US trade talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will kick off in Brussels this coming Monday, 10 March 2014. The talks will help pave the way for a future trade and investment deal which facilitates trade between the European Union and the United States. Negotiators will discuss a wide range of topics covering different aspects of the agreement. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht recently stated that the EU and the US now...

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