Intellectual property protection has recently become a hot topic in China, as numerous Chinese industrial executives, legal scholars, and government officials have begun to collaborate on how to strengthen the country’s IP protection.

The European data protection authorities have been cracking down on data security breaches and the UK has recently focused its attention on financial institutions who have violated the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

Copyright protects original, non-useful works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

The California Supreme Court has decided the fate of the unfinished business rule for hourly fee cases in the state with its long-awaited decision in Heller Ehrman LLP v. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.

Since the passage of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, 15 U.S.C. §18(a) ("HSR Act"), the Antitrust Division frequently negotiates with merging parties as to appropriate potential relief that falls short of fully blocking a proposed merger.

For many years, issuers have been required to disclose in their proxy statements the existence of transactions between the issuer and parties related to it. The SEC has recently amended Item 404 of Regulation S-K to broaden both the class of persons and the class of transactions requiring this disclosure.

Intellectual property (IP) infringement is a grave concern of multinational companies operating in China. Piracy is rife, and the loss of one's investment in developing IP can seriously hurt a company. As such, there are several methods of enforcing IP rights in China.

California is in the process of changing the method by which renewable electricity generation is tracked (and the associated environmental attributes transferred) for purposes of compliance with its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently issued a decision allowing submetering of electricity in multi-story commercial buildings. Since 1962, commercial tenants that do not have individual utility-owned electric meters have been paying for their electricity usage through their rent, with the costs typically allocated in proportion to their square footage.

In an historic, 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court clarified the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") to regulate greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to the Clean Air Act.

Companies throughout Asia Pacific grapple with choice of law and choice of forum issues in every contract.

The multimillion-dollar answer of who owns the rights to unfinished business when law firms fail rests with the California Supreme Court.

In Gelfo v. Lockheed Martin Corporation, No. B178676 (June 2, 2006), the California Court of Appeal, Second District, issued the first published California court decision holding that the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA") requires employers to engage in the "interactive process" and provide reasonable accommodation to workers "regarded as" disabled by the employer, even if they are not actually disabled.

The Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) was recently launched with the goal of getting transmission planned and built to areas with developable renewable energy resources. RETI is structured as a collaborative stakeholder process, bringing together interested parties and agencies to identify transmission projects needed to accommodate California’s renewable energy goals.

After a year of debate, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published final rules on August 21, 2007 (effective November 1, 2007), which substantially change current patent prosecution practice. In-house counsel as well as patent counsel and patent managers should inquire as to how their patent portfolio and patent litigation strategies might be affected by these changes.

In a case of first impression, on September 13, 2005, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Six, in Advanced Modular Sputtering Inc. v. Superior Court (B181405, B183766), answered two questions involving trade secret discovery in civil cases.

In NLRB v. Friendly Cab Company, Inc. (January 8, 2008, Slip Opn. No. 05-73752) ("Friendly Cab"), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals applied and clarified the "common law agency test" to hold that taxicab drivers are "employees" and not "independent contractors."

The State Council of the People’s Republic of China has issued for comment a draft of its new Labor Contract Law. That draft was recently released to the public and will likely go through at least one more iteration before a version of it is enacted. The seven-chapter draft is the country’s first law governing the establishment, revision, and termination of labor contracts in the People’s Republic of China.

It's a rare circumstance when personal history, long-held passions, and market conditions coalesce in the form of a career. But that's the kind of fate Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner partners Tom Shoesmith and Meg Utterback-who both have extensive personal and professional histories in Asia-are enjoying.

On July 26, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 ("FINSA"), which makes significant changes to the foreign investment review process contained in the Exon-Florio amendment to the Defense Production Act.