SEC Issues (Limited) Conflict Minerals Guidance

On May 30, 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued limited guidance regarding the final Conflict Minerals Rule (CM Rule) under Section 13(p) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). The guidance unfortunately does not clarify or overcome numerous ambiguities in the CM Rule or provide additional guidance on CM Rule compliance, yet does provide useful insight on 12 topics, including: the CM Rule does not apply to public issuers that merely mark a generic product with their corporate logo or symbol (see No. 4 below); the CM Rule does not apply to conflict minerals contained in packaging or containers of an issuer's product (see No. 6 below) or equipment used for the performance of services (see No. 7 below); and finally, late filing of the applicable Form SD created for purposes of CM Rule compliance does not impact S-3 eligibility (see No. 12 below).