Admittedly, the current economic crisis has dealt a severe blow to the foreign business community in Kiev. As a result, most companies are taking radical anti-crisis measures in order to survive. And cutting labor costs is at the top of everyone’s list.

The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the competition law rules, which, though to a limited extent, allow the competitors to exchange information on their clients, who have materially delayed payments.

This article discusses TRIPS-plus provisions in Costa Rican patent law, granting patent holders the possibility to request term extensions and restoration as a result of delays in the registration process or relating to effective patent term loss due regulatory approval of certain pharmaceutical products.

This article aims at giving a brief overview on civil procedure in Germany. It covers core questions and explains the legal process step by step.

After tensions with Malaysia and others on ownership of traditional heritage, the Indonesian Government appears to have become assertive in protecting its heritage. Indonesia perceived that Malaysia claimed ownership to expressions of traditional Indonesian heritage, such as Javanese batik-patterned textiles, wayang shadow puppets and the folk song Rasa Sayange (a song believed to have originated from the island of Maluku, Indonesia).

It is difficult to keep up with the prolifery of legal cases affecting the costs landscape here in the UK. Here is a summary of the main recent cases.

Employers in the Hi-Tech sector are concerned about “hitting a homerun” before any competitor does so. A significant aspect of that concern is that their own employees could, utilizing knowledge and/or skills acquired in the course of their employment, either join a competitor or start up their own competing business. The “Non-competition Clause” has, therefore, become an integral provision in employment agreements.

On January 8, 2009, Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau promulgated Notice on Implementation of Employee Layoff Report by Employer (hereinafter Notice), which provides guidance from a legislative perspective for companies which need to lay off employees under current economic crisis. Together with the Employment Contract Law of PRC, there are following issues which shall be considered by companies regarding layoff.

Private placement life insurance is a pre-emptive IRS audit tax strategy that transforms taxable ordinary income and capital gains into tax-free income (with no income tax reporting required under current U.S. Law). Please reference IRS Private Letter Ruling 200244001 (May 2, 2002). For U.S. Persons with investment income, private placement life insurance provides for compliant, tax-free compounded earnings.

7 important things to remember and do when getting pulled over by a police officer.