As the editor of the International Legal News & Executive Director of the International Lawyers Network, I would be happy to hear your comments or answer any questions about our group, please contact me: email alangriffiths@iln.com or telephone 201.594.9985 - Alan Griffiths

International Lawyers Network and IBM Find Global Solutions by Lindsay Griffiths In December of 2004, the International Lawyers Network assisted IBM with real estate concerns involved in the sale of their worldwide personal computer division to Beijing-based Lenovo Group, Ltd., a deal valued at $1.75 billion US. This IBM-Lenovo transaction created the third-largest PC manufacturing company after Dell and HP. Since Lenovo Group’s business activities had previously been limited to China, the company lacked the international infrastructure that would provide them with marketing and distribution operations to easily acquire IBM’s PC division. As a result, IBM would be heavily involved in the transition of their PC business to Lenovo Group. [FULL STORY]   Estonia: New Rules on Right of First Refusal Tark & Company, Tallinn by Risto Vahimets Right of first refusal is quite often a centerpiece of hostile takeover battles. In many cases it plays a significant role in the more friendly takeover negotiations as well. Use of right of first refusal based on the law and articles of association has been heavily disputed and rules on that critisized in Estonia for many years. It has almost seemed that the legislator can not get it right and this concept remains uneffective for ever. [FULL STORY]   Intellectual Property in Designs – Poland Kochanski Brudkowski i Wspolnicy Sp.J., Warsaw by Dustin Du Cane As with other modern legal regimes, Poland recognizes and protects the value of intellectual property in designs and of the work put into creating a design and giving it value, during the initial or later stages, through quality production, advertising or marketing. Legal protection in Poland is gained through creation (copyright law), registration (industrial property law) or market and consumer recognition (unfair competition law), sometimes on the basis of all of above. Poland does not have a strict registration regime and in many cases it will be possible to protect a design without formal registration. [FULL STORY]   The European Enforcement Order for Uncontested Claims Göhmann Wrede Haas Kappus & Hartmann , Barcelona by Annette Haym By creating a European enforcement order for uncontested claims the European Union has tackled a common problem faced in cross-border issues when enforcing a court order obtained in one state in another state of the EU. Procedural rules have been adapted to correspond more closely to the effects of free movement in the EU and to the reality of a common market without borders, thus offering higher legal certainty when seeking civil justice within EU boundaries and allowing the free circulation of decisions. [FULL STORY]   Lending Blind - What You Don't Know Can Hurt You Arnstein & Lehr, Chicago by R. Kymn Harp There is no question we are in a fiercely competitive commercial lending market. Banks and other lenders have more money to lend than credit worthy borrowers seek to borrow. Interest rates remain... [FULL STORY]   $300 Million Criminal Antitrust Fine Underscores the Importance of Understanding U.S. Antitrust Laws Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. Washington by Michael Bissegger On October 13, 2005, the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced that Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. (“Samsung”) had agreed to pay a $300 million fine (the 2nd largest criminal antitrust fine in U.S. history) as part of its agreement to plead guilty to charges of participating in an international price-fixing conspiracy. The DOJ’s antitrust investigation has thus far produced charges against three companies and five individuals and total fines over $646 million. Aside from the historical significance of the size of the fine, the DOJ’s investigation and prosecution of Samsung and others provides an important reminder to all international companies that do business in the U.S. of the importance of understanding and complying with the basic principles of U.S. antitrust laws. [FULL STORY]   Obligations of Receivers With Respect to Special Purpose Assets - Australia Gadens Lawyers, Sydney by Simon Lipp In Florgale Uniforms Pty Ltd (Receiver and Manager Appointed) (In Liquidation) v Orders (2004) 51 ACSR 699, the Supreme Court of Victoria considered the issue of the duties owed by a receiver to a company and the guarantors of the company’s debts in respect of special purpose assets of the company. [FULL STORY]   Analysis of the Mexican Commercial Insolvency Law Martinez, Algaba, Estrella, de Haro y Galvan-Duque by Martinez, Algaba, Estrella, de Haro y Galvan-Duque On May 12th, 2000, the Commercial Insolvency Law (“CIL”) was published in the Mexican Official Daily of the Federation, and it entered into full force and effect the next day. The CIL repealed the 1943 Law Governing Suspension of Payments and Bankruptcy, and repealed or amended, accordingly, all other legal provisions that opposed the provisions of the CIL. FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE (PDF)   Recent Developments in Trademarks Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk and Rabkin, San Francisco by Karen S. Frank I. SCOPE OF RIGHTS a. Personal Names Flynn v. AK Peters Ltd., 377 F.3d 13 (1st Cir. 2004). For a personal name to be eligible for trademark protection, a plaintiff must demonstrate that such name has acquired secondary meaning for the customers in the relevant market for the products or services associated with such name. Plaintiff, a co-author of a book on robotics, failed to show that the wider group of consumers that might purchase a revised version of the book would do so based on her name being affixed to the revision, of which she did not fully approve. The First Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment ruling, holding that the Lanham Act did not apply to plaintiff’s claim, as anecdotal evidence that a “handful of strangers” recognized her from a talk and one graduate student said she was “famous” did not constitute sufficient evidence of her name having acquired secondary meaning. FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE (PDF)   Establishing Presence in China through Merger and Acquisition Lehman, Lee & Xu, Beijing by Sandy Lin Though, on a global basis, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were the prevalent method through which multinationals conducted foreign investment, previously, ‘green field’ investments were, virtually, the only option available to foreign investors in China. However, this appears to have changed dramatically over the last several years, with the Chinese Government having introduced and consolidated various laws and regulations since 2002, with the intention of stimulating M&A-related activity. With the legal framework, structuring M&A activity, in place, the robust growth of China’s economy and its further liberalization of the domestic market after its accession to the World Trade Organization have worked together to fuel the accelerated pace of M&A activity in recent years. Statistics shows that China-related M&A transactions rose 50% in 2004 over the previous year. High profile foreign acquisitions include HSBC’s US $1.74 billion acquisition of a 19.9% stake in the Bank of Communications and Anheuser-Busch’s US $600 million acquisition of Harbin Brewery Group. It is foreseeable that M&A activity, which offers foreign investors a more immediate method of entering the China market as opposed to ‘green field’ investment, will continue to boom in China in the years to come. This article will seek to provide a clear-cut overview of the current status of M&A practice in China so that foreign investors unfamiliar with China’s investment environment and legal framework may obtain a basic understanding of how to establish a presence in China through M&A. [FULL STORY]   Google Print for Libraries: has Google gone too far? Fladgate Fielder, London by Eddie Powell In the beginning it seemed like a dream come true: to make literature and knowledge accessible from all over the world and at any time. Free access to culture and information, this was Google’s promise, when it announced in October 2004 the launching of the first Google Print programme: Google Print for Publishers (GPP). For this purpose, Google has negotiated title-specific contracts with many publishers mainly from the US, including big houses like Penguin, Taylor & Francis, Blackwell, Springer, Chicago and Cambridge, to digitise their publications and to make them available on the internet via the Google search function. [FULL STORY]   The new Companies Act of Sweden - Streamlining and simplifying the old act Hellström & Partners law firm, Stockholm by Staffan Michelson There are about 307 000 limited companies in Sweden out of which approximately 1 000 are public limited ones. The basic regulations are set forth in the 1975 Companies Act (aktiebolagslagen). Due to the many changes in business life and the requirements of making the rules for limited companies clear and lucid a complete revision has been made, the result of which is the new Companies Act which will come into force by 1st January 2006. [FULL STORY]   International Email Marketers Beware: Utah’s Latest Effort to Curb Spam Fabian & Clendenin, Salt Lake City, Utah by Gregory M. Saylin and Leanne N. Webster When the United States Congress enacted the CAN-SPAM Act in 2003, some email marketers may have had a false sense of security that the only U.S. law about which they needed to be concerned was this new federal legislation which eliminated private rights of action except by internet service providers. In fact, the CAN-SPAM Act only preempted laws that specifically sought to regulate commercial email, leaving open the possibility of suits brought under common law or other broader legislative schemes. Litigation over email advertising has continued throughout the United States. [FULL STORY]   Reconsideration of Romania's state aids policy as an EU accession condition and risks for state aid beneficiaries Zamfirescu Racoti-Predoiu Law Partnership, Bucharest, Romania by Raluca Marian and Cristina Dinu Romania’s accession to the EU requires, among others, the improvement of its state aid policy in order to make the internal competition environment compatible with the common market. [FULL STORY]