Alerts

Last week, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service convened a webinar to accept public comments on implementing the hemp provisions included in the 2018 farm bill.

The Supreme Court recently held that, subject to a few narrow statutory exceptions, copyright owners must wait until their applications are either registered or rejected by the US Copyright Office before filing suit for infringement claims. 

Acting Administrator of the Wage & Hour Division (WHD) of the DOL issued an opinion letter taking the position that employers cannot allow employees to exhaust paid sick and other leave before designating leave as FMLA and having it count against their 12- or 26- week entitlement.

Municipalities and other local governments do not have free rein when it comes to regulating the environment, and the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Vermont Railway, Inc. v. Town of Shelburne is a clear reminder of that fact.

Headlines that matter for privacy and data security.

After a two year transitional period, Section 500.11 of the New York State Department of Financial Services’ Cybersecurity Regulation, which addresses third-party security, is in force as of March 1, 2019.

Regulations recently adopted in the District of Columbia require nonprofits (whether formed under DC law or formed under the laws of another jurisdiction) that enjoy real property, personal property, franchise, or sales tax exemption to re-file with the District once every five years.

The ongoing process of reform to the ICSID Rules has prompted renewed attention to the place of investor-state mediation.

After announcing in December that it would intervene in a qui tam action under the False Claims Act against Sutter Health and Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), the US Department of Justice filed its complaint-in-intervention in the Northern District of California on March 4, 2019.

New York-based company Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and its owner Naftula Jacobowitz, settled Federal Trade Commission charges that the company paid a third-party website to write and post fake reviews for a weight-loss supplement on an independent retail website and made false and unsubstantiated clai

In Viamedia v. Comcast, the Seventh Circuit is currently reviewing a district court’s decision to dismiss a refusal to deal claim on a 12(b)(6) motion because plaintiff Viamedia failed to allege that Comcast’s refusal to deal had no rational competitive purpose.

Developing renewable energy on contaminated lands has proven to be both effective and cost-effective for companies pursuing a new solar or wind energy project.

Arent Fox has successfully procured another patent for Acronis, a leading provider of cloud backup and data management services, covering a new technology for watermarking digital content using a blockchain network.

Kim Kardashian West has filed suit against Missguided USA Finance Inc. and Missguided Limited, in the US district court for the Central District of California, alleging right of publicity violations and trademark infringement.

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre continues to cement its reputation as a leading arbitral venue.

On March 4, the Trump Administration announced the termination of India and Turkey as recipients of the Generalized System of Preferences, on grounds that neither country adheres to the program’s statutory eligibility criteria.

Revisiting an issue remaining from the last administration, the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) on Thursday evening issued a new proposed rule raising the minimum salary and compensation requirements for overtime exemptions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

Health Care Partner Douglas Grimm and Associate Hillary Stemple authored an article for the March 2019 edition of Compliance Today titled “Telemedicine: A review of the fraud and abuse landscape.”

On March 7, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to increase the salary threshold for the so-called “white collar exemptions” from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime pay requirements.

The NYC Commission on Human Rights issued a legal enforcement guidance affirming that grooming or appearance policies that ban, limit, or otherwise restrict natural hair or hairstyles associated with Black people generally violate the NYC Human Rights Law’s anti-discrimination provisions.

On March 1, 2019, only seven days after the NLRB General Counsel issued a Memorandum taking an expansive view of Beck rights, a divided NLRB ruled that nonmember objectors cannot be compelled to pay for union lobbying expenses United Nurses & Allied Professionals (Kent Hospital).

On February 22, 2019, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a Memorandum on a union’s duty to properly notify employees of their General Motors/Beck rights and to accept dues checkoff revocations after contract expiration. Memorandum GC 19-04 (Feb. 22, 2019).

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a district court’s order treating an arbitrator’s order as a foreign arbitral award under the New York Convention.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

Three recent settlements between very different employers and the US Department of Justice have highlighted the need for employers to be mindful of the complex interplay between export control laws and anti-discrimination provisions in US immigration laws.