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Trademark Filings Mostly Down Worldwide in 2009

March 23, 2010 By

International trademark filings at the World Intellectual Property Organization dropped 16 percent in 2009, amid a 12 percent decline in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings.

The WIPO dip stems from a global economic slowdown and restrained consumer demand around the world, said Francis Gurry, WIPO’s director general, in a statement.

Last year, 35,195 international trademark applications flowed into WIPO's 84-member system, which includes countries and groups of nations like the European Union. That compares with 42,075 applications in 2008.

via Trademark Filings Mostly Down Worldwide in 2009.

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Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks – washingtonpost.com

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’s; searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a “wake-up call.” Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a “collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners.”

via Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks – washingtonpost.com.

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How Developing World Businesses Can Make American Arbitration Work for Them – Legal

January 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As the volume of business transacted between the developing and developed world businesses grows, so too does the need for a fair and efficient process for resolving disputes arising therefrom. Frequently, American businesses demand that an arbitration clause be included in business contracts so that any dispute will be resolved in a United States arbitration forum. Developing world businesses might be suspicious of this demand and assume that the process must favor the U.S. party: Why else would a U.S. Fortune 500 company demand arbitration under the auspices of an American arbitration organization?

A closer look, however, reveals that American arbitration can offer several advantages for the developing world business, among them, flexibility, efficiency, fairness and knowledgeable adjudicators. However, these advantages are attainable only if the developing country business identifies its particular needs and negotiates a process that meets them.

U.S. LAW SUPPORTS AND ENCOURAGES ARBITRATION

The United States is several decades ahead of most other countries in developing an arbitration system that courts and the business community trust and support. Over the last half century, laws have been enacted and courts have issued rulings that encourage parties to resolve their business disputes through arbitration. American courts read arbitration clauses broadly and routinely enforce them. American courts rarely overturn an arbitral result, doing so only where fraud or some other extreme deficiency has corrupted the process. Finally, U.S. courts generally enforce arbitral awards, giving it the same dignity and legitimacy as a court-entered judgment.

via How Developing World Businesses Can Make American Arbitration Work for Them – Legal.

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Will Shanghai Overtake Hong Kong as World Financial Center?

December 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A report by British law firm Eversheds claiming that Shanghai could overtake London as a world financial center in 10 years has led to a predictable round of hand-wringing from the British press, including the Financial Times, the BBC and the Telegraph.

But not all of Asia is gloating. Missing altogether from Eversheds’ report is the city that’s most worried about losing ground to Shanghai: Hong Kong.

Obviously, such surveys are to be taken with a grain of salt; after all, over a tenth of Eversheds’ respondents predicted Dubai would emerge as the world’s preeminent financial center in decade’s time.

And Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with a separate local government and legal system, has been booming recently. So far this year, its exchange is leading the world in initial public offerings, mostly on behalf of mainland Chinese companies. It remains the preferred regional base for global banks and, consequently, international law firms.

Still, Hong Kong has long had a complex about Shanghai, which was the region’s preeminent financial center before falling under communist rule in 1949. Now that that same communist government has embraced capitalism, fears abound that Shanghai will be promoted at Hong Kong’s expense.

That anxiety was reflected in a Reuters article last week, in which one Hong Kong banker fretted that his city would become a second city — a Boston or a Chicago to Shanghai’s New York.

via Will Shanghai Overtake Hong Kong as World Financial Center?.

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The top 50 litigation practices

December 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

One of the key findings from The Lawyer’s annual round-up of the top 50 global disputes practices is that international arbitration is one of the main battlegrounds for the world’s top litigation teams.

What is also clear is that London is at the centre of the action, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the top international firms.

“London certainly has to be a place where you increase resources,” argues Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner Larry Shore. “The way we look at the world, there’s certainly significant growth in international arbitration in London and New York, with arguably some levelling off in Paris.”

Shore’s perception is backed up by statistics from the ICC International Court of Arbitration, which shows London is gradually closing in on the French capital as the world’s favourite city for arbitration (see below).

Globally, however, there is much more than just arbitration keeping firms busy. This year’s top 50 litigation practices, based on the proportion of firms’ 2008 revenue derived from disputes, reflects increasing levels of activity across a wide range of areas.

The list is inevitably dominated by US firms. Strategically and historically litigation is not as important to UK firms, a fact underlined by the presence of only five UK-headquartered firms in the list.

That said, the current performance of some UK firms with strong countercyclical practices (think Stephenson Harwood, where revenue was up 8 per cent at the half year) might encourage firms on this side of the Atlantic to invest a little more in building disputes teams.

[continued] Focus: Fight Club: The top 50 litigation practices | Features | The Lawyer.

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Islamic Finance Practices Face Their First Test With Dubai World Debt

December 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Am Law Daily wrote on Tuesday about the mass of law firms that rushed into Dubai over the past two years to get in on the real estate and financing boom sweeping the Gulf region, but we wanted to know a bit more about the climate there this week, now that Dubai World, the massive sovereign wealth conglomerate, has announced plans to restructure about half its $60 billion in outstanding debt. So we called Jawad Ali, a King & Spalding partner based in Dubai and the deputy head of the firms Middle East & Islamic Finance practice group.

Ali, who has worked mostly in the Middle East since 1994, specializes in Islamic financial products, such as sukuk, products that act much like traditional bonds but remain in compliance with Islamic law, or Shariah. The law forbids interest as well as financial products that generally allow investors to, in Alis words, “make money off of money.” Investors must share profits with lenders, and there must be a real asset tied to the investment — in the case of the Dubai World subsidiary in the most trouble a unit called Nakheel, that asset is real estate.Ali was kind enough to take us through Islamic finance and describe the climate in Dubai right now.

[continued] Islamic Finance Practices Face Their First Test With Dubai World Debt.

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Is the world really going Google?

November 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Google is going after Microsoft on its home turf–the enterprise world–and businesses seem to be taking notice and jumping ship.

It’s no secret that Google is trying to derail Microsoft’s position in enterprise. Considering the way that businesses drive IT spending, it’s no wonder that Microsoft has built the company around selling its software and solutions to businesses that buy in bulk. Google’s plan to enter the corporate world first became evident a few years ago when it began offering Google Search Appliance (pictured below) and Google Mini.

These rack-mounted devices give businesses document indexing functionality easily integrated into corporate website, intranet, and document management systems. It would all come together later when Google Apps came along, a hosted services suite on custom domain names. Google Apps includes popular consumer web apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs, and Sites–all optimized to run off a custom domain.

Over two million business and 20 million users in over 100 countries and more than 40 languages have switched to Google Apps thus far, the search firm said mid-October. Google claims each day “thousands of companies, including the world’s top brands” switch to its hosted solutions comprising of Google Apps, Postini premium email management services, and the Search Appliance.

Key benefits of running your business off the Google cloud include not having to worry about software updates and maintenance costs because Google maintains web apps, servers, and keeps your data safe in the cloud. There is no learning curve whatsoever because your employees basically run the same services they privately use at home. Finally, there’s the cost comparison: $50 a year per Google Apps seat versus $200-$300 a year for a Microsoft Office seat.

Here are a few data points that paint a better picture of Google’s inroads into the corporate world:

  • over two million business users have gone Google
  • over 60 percent of Fortune 100 have gone Google
  • over 60 percent of U.S. state governments have gone Google
  • some of the companies and organizations that have gone Google include Genentech, Motorola Mobile Devices Business, Northwestern University, New York Life, The Onion, Rentokil Initial, Telegraph Media Group, InterContinental Hotels Group, Konica Minolta, DOCOMO International, Guliver, Fujisoft, and more.

[continued] Analysis: Is the world really going Google? | Geek.com.

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Experts to hash out global data privacy rules in Spain

November 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Experts from around the world gather from Wednesday in Madrid for a three-day conference that aims to hash out international standards for the protection of privacy and personal data.

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as well as national privacy commissioners are among the over 1,000 who are expected to take part in the event, billed as the world’s largest forum dedicated to privacy.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency, an independent control authority monitoring compliance with data protection regulations, is organising the 31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy.

“The lack of harmonised regulations causes difficulties to citizens when it comes to exercising their rights, which benefit from different levels of protection depending on the state in which their data are being processed,” it said in a statement.

Participants hope the international standards reached at the gathering will serve as the basis for a universal, binding legal instrument on data protection.

via AFP: Experts to hash out global data privacy rules in Spain.

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