By Charles Gielen | NautaDutilh The Benelux trade mark System will undergo two important changes as per June 1, 2018. Appeals from decisions of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) Until now appeals from decisions of the BOIP in opposition cases were brought before the courts of appeal of The Hague, Brussels or Luxembourg (with further appeals on questions of law to the respective supreme courts). This resulted in some quite different results. For example, in cases of refusal on absolute grounds, the...

By AEM Carnelutti The European General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) is a European regulation on data protection and privacy. The GDPR was enacted on April 27 and is going into effect on May 25, 2018, after a two-year transition period. It replaces the national privacy laws based on the venerable 1995 EU Data Protection Directive and reaches all companies processing EU consumers’ data. The GDPR creates a new privacy framework in European law that grants broad privacy rights to individual EU residents...

The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia and the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship, Internationalization, Foreign Investment and Technology (SPIRIT) in cooperation with the Wood Industry Cluster, organize a business delegation of woodworkers in the USA from 21st to 25th of May 2018 (New York, Cleveland and Pittsburgh). The purpose of the delegation is to establish business links to boost exports to the US in the coming years. Target market segments include; Interiors, office...

By Rebecca L. Sigmund , Ann Louise Brown Cauble | Ogletree Deakins On April 11, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the completion of its “computer-generated” random selection process used to select H-1B petitions for the congressionally-mandated cap filing season for fiscal year (FY) 2019. USCIS previously announced on April 6, 2018, that it had reached the statutory cap of 65,000 H-1B petitions and the master’s cap of 20,000 petitions. USCIS received a total of 190,098 H-1B petitions during this year’s filing period, which began...

The toy industry is experiencing profound change as online shopping continues to grow, technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, customers increasingly want customized products, and the retail landscape diversifies. Yet, these challenges present exciting opportunities for the industry to redefine itself. In light of this, The Toy Association has commissioned a series of studies by ProdigyWorks, whose exclusive network of creative thinkers and industry experts are exploring the future of the toy industry. The first study, “The Future Toy...

By Donna L. Fisher, Matthew J. Hamilton, Sandra Adams | Pepper Hamilton  Reprinted with permission from the April 12, 2018 issue of the New Jersey Law Journal. © 2018 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. Technology-assisted review (TAR)—an algorithm-based method of reviewing documents for relevance—is a powerful tool that can improve the accuracy of document review while reducing cost. Some litigators have been reluctant to utilize it for fear of expensive collateral litigation about its implementation. Numerous decisions...

By Robert van Galen, Barbara Rumora-Scheltema, Anne Marie Verschuur , Tom de Clerck |NautaDutilh  Recently, the Dutch Supreme Court rendered a judgment in which it has given a detailed explanation of the effects of bankruptcy proceedings on a contract or other legal relationship. The case in question involved a dispute between a bankruptcy trustee and a bank as to whether the bank could file its post-bankruptcy legal costs as a claim in the bankruptcy proceedings. The Supreme Court took the opportunity to elaborate on earlier...