The Legal 500

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").

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.

Israel’s National Labour Court recently issued a significant and groundbreaking ruling regarding employers’ monitoring of employees’ emails in the workplace. This ruling is applicable and important for all businesses with employees in Israel.   HFN’s Labour and Employment Law department, led by Orly Gerbi, summarised the issue as follows:

Adv. Amit Krispin, head of the Energy and Infrastructure department in Seligman & Co. The writer represents a large number of natural gas consumers and infrastructure companies in the industry. In 2002, shortly after the discovery of the first natural gas fields in Israeli territorial waters, the Natural Gas Act was enacted (the "Law"). The Law's stated purpose was to create suitable conditions for the development of the natural gas industry in Israel, mainly through the private sector, and to encourage competition in this industry, in accordance with Government policy in the fields of economics and energy.

The Israeli gas industry has undergone tremendous developments in the past decade, due to the discovery of significant natural gas fields in Israeli territorial waters, the largest of which are the Tamar field, estimated at 247 billion cubic meters (“BCM”), and the Leviathan field containing 453 BCM. Currently, the “Mary B” field (20-16 BCM) is the only operative field and it provides, as of 2004, natural gas to the Israeli Electric Company (“IEC”). The recent discoveries produced a fast-growing energy market, such that in 2010, 45% of IEC electricity production was based on natural gas, compared to o% in 2003, and the overall consumption of natural gas increased by 275% between 2004-2009.

High tech companies who employ foreign workers in the U.S. face dramatically increased U.S. federal regulatory scrutiny since December 2010 regarding technology they disclose to foreign workers located both within the U.S. and abroad. This is likely to catch many companies by surprise, and warrants immediate attention given the sanctions described below.