The Legal 500

Is your business involved in international trade? If the answer to this question is a resounding “YES”, then it might well be time for your business to prepare and adopt a code of conduct that includes procedures to detect and prevent bribery of foreign government officials. The day is coming when not having such a code will be a bar to entering many different lucrative markets and will place you and your business in danger of breaking the law.

On November 5, 2012 the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) adopted a proposal of the Israeli Ministry of Finance and passed legislation providing for a temporary tax relief with respect to the recapture tax applicable to certain Israeli companies holding undistributed earnings that were previously exempt from Israeli corporate income tax under tax incentive programs.

Environmental policy and regulation in Israel have developed significantly over the course of the past several years. After decades of what may be considered as regulatory standstill, Israeli environmental regulation has taken a tremendous leap forward. Numerous environmental matters, some of which were not previously regulated and others which were subject to outdated standards, have been revised and updated through new comprehensive statutes, innovative regulations and professional guidelines.

Welcome to the 4 th edition of Unfolding, which looks at some important developments in Israel in recent months.  Much has happened in Israel since the last edition of Unfolding. The Israeli economy may be small in scale, but never in the level of its business activity.

Following on from the Government's decision to adopt the recommendations of the Committee for Increasing Competition in the Marketplace, the Government published last week a Memorandum on the Law for Promotion of Competition and Reduction in Concentration, 5772-2012. The Memorandum aims at providing a statutory framework for implementing the recommendations of the Committee.

Corporate and Securities Law

On February 27, 2012, the Agency Contract Law (Commercial Agent and Supplier), 5772-2012 (hereinafter: the “Law”) was published. The Law shall enter into force 60 days from the date of publication.

Is your business involved in international trade? If the answer to this question is a resounding “YES”, then it might well be time for your business to prepare and adopt a code of conduct that includes procedures to detect and prevent bribery of foreign government officials. The day is coming when not having such a code will be a bar to entering many different lucrative markets and will place you and your business in danger of breaking the law.

 the Israeli Chief Scientist by Rona Ginat

Introduction Until recently, a foreign company or individual wishing to invest in China could only do so by setting up a limited liability company1 in one f the following forms: equity joint venture, cooperative joint venture or a wholly foreign owned enterprise (i.e., EJV, CJV and WFOE, collectively "FIEs").

Protection of trademarks is one of the most difficult legal and commercial issues with which foreign companies have to grapple while operating in China. In many cases, foreign companies start operating in China after they have already acquired a strong reputation for their products worldwide. However, when they try to file a registration application for their trademark to the Chinese trademark authorities, they suddenly discover that there has been a prior registration of an identical or similar trademark for the same or similar products/service.