This article discusses how subordinated loans to German companies may have adverse tax consequences for a company (and thereby, economically, for its shareholders) as a result of a recent decision by Germany's Federal Financial Court (Bundesfinanzhof), and the requirements companies should include in their loan agreements to German companies to avoid such adverse consequences.

This article explores some general differences between the employment and labo(u)r law system in Canada, and in particular the province of Québec, and the labor and employment law system as it exists in the United States of America.

On February 12, 2013, President Obama issued an Executive Order addressing the growing cyber threat to the United States' "critical infrastructure." The energy industry should pay attention, both for regulatory compliance purposes and also as a matter of sound business practice, in the face of the increasing security threat posed by cyber attacks.

This article considers the first reported English case on the mis-selling of an interest rate hedging product. The case provides a useful indication of the obstacles claimants in these cases will have to overcome.

This article discusses the recent rise of cloud computing, and the subsequent developments in its regulation. Focussing on both the Article 29 Working Party's Opinion 05/2012 on Cloud Computing, and the subsequent Guidance published by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, this article considers the practical impact on both the customer and the supplier. 

This article discusses the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012, signed into law by President Obama in December 2012, which implemented the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs ("the Hague Agreement"). The Hague Agreement is an international registration system that offers the possibility of obtaining protection for industrial designs in a number of countries and/or intergovernmental organizations by means of a single international application filed with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Hague Agreement will likely not go into effect for one year and will apply only to design patent applications filed after the effective date. 

This article discusses a recent case, heard in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal, against the backdrop of the pervasive European design community. The widely publicised case involved a dispute between Apple, designer of consumer electronics and computer software, and Samsung, the South Korean conglomerate, over their respective designs of computer tablets.