By Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.   On April 17, 2018, at the request of both sides of United States v. Microsoft Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court remanded and dismissed one of the most closely watched privacy cases of the last several years just a few weeks after oral argument.   What engendered this highly unusual action? Last month, President Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, which contained a little-debated section entitled the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act....

By Thompson Hine Key Notes: The Supreme Court decided April 24 that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) can invalidate patents without violating the U.S. Constitution. The Court also decided on April 24, in a separate case, that the PTAB must issue a decision on the validity of every patent claim that is challenged. In light of these decisions, a PTAB challenge may now be a more useful and cost-effective option for companies that are (a) paying a royalty...

By Tim Marshall | Adam Hartley | DLA Piper  The countdown is on to the implementation of the GDPR on 25 May 2018. With less than one month to go, many employers will be finalising their preparation for the changes the new law will bring to data protection in the workplace.  For those employers finalising their preparations, it may be time to check in to ensure that you remain on track and on target. But for those organisations who are only just turning...

 Vistra, one of the world’s leading providers of international incorporations, trust, fiduciary, private office and fund administration services, today announced it has entered an agreement to acquire Radius, a specialist US-based provider of international expansion services. Vistra is acquiring Radius from the private equity firm Hg. The transaction doubles Vistra’s International Expansion Services (IES) business, making it a market leader in IES services, including the number one market position in the USA. Vistra’s IES business helps clients navigate expansion into...

By Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati On April 26, 2018, the International Trade Commission (ITC) published its long-awaited amendments to its Rules of General Application, Adjudication, and Enforcement. The amendments address a host of issues including the splitting or severance of investigations, early resolution on potentially dispositive issues, subpoena practice, and other procedures intended to address concerns about investigations conducted under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. Section 1337). The ITC first published proposed amendments on September 24, 2015,...

By Alexandra Kamerling | Sarah Smith | Sam Szlezinger | DLA PIPER Introduction The fines imposed by the European Commission (the "Commission") for substantive breaches of competition law have been steadily increasing in recent years, culminating in the high fines imposed on Intel (€1.06bn), Google (€2.42bn) and the participants in the trucks cartel (totalling €3.8bn). However, the Commission is also increasingly enforcing procedural competition law rules, particularly in the context of the European Merger Regulation (the "EUMR"), imposing fines for breaches, the most recent example being the...

KEY EVENTS THIS WEEK: BREXIT Downing street comes under renewed pressure over customs union British MPs yesterday approved a non-binding motion recommending that the UK should remain in the customs union after Brexit, a move that heaps further pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and her cabinet ahead of a crucial binding vote that will come back into the House of Commons in the next few weeks. Although a planned non-binding vote scheduled for today did not go ahead as expected, the...