The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this month published its final "All Appropriate Inquiry" (AAI) rule (70 Fed. Reg. 66070) which establishes environmental due diligence standards applicable to property acquisitions as well as to persons conducting site characterization or assessment activities using grants awarded under EPA’s Brownfields program.

The SEC has issued final rules permitting both national securities exchanges and issuers, under certain circumstances, to delist securities from trading on a national securities exchange and/or deregister such securities under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act upon electronically filing a newly-revised Form 25 with the Commission.

Many employers may now be in violation of Section (8)(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as the result of a newly released decision by the National Labor Relations Board (the Board).

On April 20, 2004, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) announced the final regulations governing overtime eligibility for white collar workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Barring Congressional action, the new regulations will take effect on August 23, 2004.

On July 28, 2004, the SEC promulgated its new rules regulating short sales. These rules significantly change the existing regulatory framework. This article summarizes the existing regulation of short sales and the new short sale rules.

The Federal Trade Commission will shortly publish in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the FTC’s long-awaited business opportunity rule (Bus Opp Rule). The Bus Opp Rule, if and when promulgated, will replace the business opportunities coverage under the current and proposed amended Franchise Rule.

On June 16, 2004, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that nonunion employees do not have the right to the presence of a coworker during investigatory interviews. The presence of a coworker during an investigatory interview which the employee reasonably believes may result in disciplinary action is called a "Weingarten right." Under the new ruling, the NLRB found that employers must be allowed to conduct required investigations without the presence of an employee's coworker.

In an October 23, 2003, decision, Lanco, Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation (No. 005329-970), the New Jersey Tax Court comprehensively reviews the history of state taxation of interstate royalty payments and the constitutional issues involved and limits the right of the state to tax such royalty payments.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd.,</I> decided by the United States Supreme Court yesterday, focuses on whether companies that distribute peer-to-peer software allowing the sharing of digital media files over the Internet may be held liable for contributory or vicarious copyright infringement. Plaintiffs, the major motion picture and recording companies and a group of songwriters and music publishers, sued Grokster and StreamCast, which distributed free peer-to-peer software.

With a season of experience under their belts, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued new guidance regarding management assessments and outside auditor attestations of internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulations (SOX 404).

Chicago City Council passed an amendment to its high rise ordinance. That amendment imposed new restrictions on the use of fire doors in buildings more than 80 feet above grade. Meeting on Wednesday, November 19, they have now repealed that amendment

Is there a gap in United States intellectual property law that should be filled by new legislation? The controversial issue of protecting factual databases is once again before Congress. Many owners of commercial databases have sought federal protection for compilations of information since 1991, when the Supreme Court ruled that copyright law protects only the selection and arrangement of factual information in a compilation, not the underlying facts themselves.

Over the past several years, developments regarding the adoption of a franchise law in China have taken various turns, culminating in significant activity in the last two months of 2004. This article will report on the newly adopted Measures and the effect we believe they will have on franchising in the world’s most populous country

On February 18, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission released its Second Order on Reconsideration (Order) in its rulemaking proceeding implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (the TCPA). The Order denies nearly all of the dozens of requests that the FCC reconsider or modify the telemarketing rules adopted by the FCC in its 2003 Report and Order, and changes the rules only to correct a minor error.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), among others, describes the securitisation of intellectual property (IP) assets as "a new trend". It has now been more than seven years since the introduction of the so-called Bowie bonds - regarded as the first ever music royalties future receivable securitisation - which gave rise to IP securitisation as a financing vehicle.

We have been waiting for three years for the Chinese Government to issue new regulations on franchising. We knew they were inevitable, in light of the manifest inadequacy of the only current regulatory treatment, a set of rules promulgated in 1997.

you have employees in your work force who just can't seem to get along with other workers? If so, you're not alone. And if such an employee has a psychiatric disorder of which you are aware and you discipline the employee, you may face a claim of discrimination based on an argument that you "regarded" the employee as disabled under the American With Disabilities Act (ADA) because she failed to interact well with others in the workplace.

In a recent case from California, a federal trial court in California re-examined an issue that was central to a headline-making decision from the state courts of California in 1996. In July 2003, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California addressed whether a franchisor could seek compensation for future lost royalties from a franchisee after the franchise agreement between the two was terminated.

On December 8, 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, characterized as providing the most sweeping changes to Medicare since 1965. As has been widely publicized by the media, this law provides for the first time in the program’s history a prescription drug benefit for over 40 million Medicare beneficiaries.