The legal framework for employee inventions in France

Legal Briefing

The principles that preside over employees inventions in France are well defined by the law. Indeed, article L611-8 of the French Intellectual Property Code (IPC) clearly defines the rules of ownership of invention and remuneration, for various situations, which differ depending on whether the employee has an inventive mission or not.

Class actions in Israel – a cautionary tale for international corporations

Legal Briefing

Class actions are a widely-used litigation practice in Israel and have been so for years. Illustratively, in each of the last three years, over 1,200 new motions to certify class actions were filed. Many of these claims were filed against multinational and foreign corporations concerning their operations in Israel. In fact, one might struggle to …

Major changes to Taiwan financial services – sandbox experiments, token offerings and internet banks

Legal Briefing

The Taiwan government has been actively promoting fintech development and there have been several major developments recently. The primary regulator of the financial services industry, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), introduced the ‘regulatory sandbox’ in 2018 and several fintech experiments have been launched since. In June 2019, the FSC announced that it will regulate security …

Recording and re-use of testimonies in Norwegian courts

Legal Briefing

In recent years, Norwegian courts have transitioned to near-full electronic communication between the parties and the courts. Court hearings are more and more often paperless, and the use of long-distance meetings and examinations by way of video link is increasing. In this article, we put the spotlight on another aspect of digitalisation that is currently …

Charity begins at home

Legal Briefing

George Wilkinson, secretary to the Ashfords Foundation, outlines the positive benefits to law firms of getting serious about their charity work I am frequently asked why Ashfords established a charitable foundation. Having explained the why and the how, almost invariably the next remark is: ‘Why didn’t we think of that?’

Luxembourg SIFs: the investment vehicle of choice to structure third-party funding activities

Legal Briefing

Basic principles of third-party funding Over the past 30 years, third-party dispute funding has experienced an exponential growth in civil and common law jurisdictions. As the common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty were softened or even abolished (most often in the context of international arbitration proceedings), third-party funding became a viable option for companies …

Enforcement of court judgments and arbitral awards in Saudi Arabia

Legal Briefing

Court judgments and arbitral awards are enforced in Saudi Arabia in accordance with the new Enforcement Law issued by Royal Decree No. M/53, dated 13 Shaban 1433H (corresponding to 3 July 2012) (the Enforcement Law); and the Implementing Regulations for the Enforcement Law issued by Ministerial Resolution No. 9892 dated 17 Rabi Thani 1434H (corresponding …

28 USC §1782: a powerful tool for obtaining US discovery in aid of foreign proceedings

Legal Briefing

A key distinction between US and non-US litigation is the liberal discovery available to parties in the United States. However, non-US litigants have a powerful tool that can provide the benefit of US discovery rules to obtain broad discovery for use in proceedings abroad. United States Statute 28 USC §1782 empowers a district court to …