In brief On 15 May 2024, the Government officially issued the new Decree No. 52/2024/ND-CP to regulate cashless payments (“Decree No. 52”). Decree No. 52 takes effect from 1 July 2024 and replaces the previous Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP on cashless payments, as amended from time to time (“Decree No. 101”). Among other things, Decree No. 52 sets forth regulations mainly on opening and using payment accounts, cashless payment services and intermediary payment services (IPS). Decree…
In brief In an earlier post, we had reported about the draft Law on Organization of People’s Courts (“Law”), which among others had the goal to establish a Specialized Court of First Instance for Intellectual Property (“Specialized IP Court“) . On 24 June 2024, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved the amended Law. The Law has officially laid the groundwork for the establishment of a Specialized IP Court, marking a milestone for IP rights protection and…
In brief The People’s Supreme Court and the National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam are expediting the issuance of a draft law that supersedes the existing Law on Organization of People’s Courts. Among the proposed changes in the draft law, the option to establish a Specialized Court of First Instance for Intellectual Property (“Specialized IP Court”) has garnered considerable interest from intellectual property and legal professionals. The draft law is currently under review by the NA…
In brief After more than half a century, Thailand is now proceeding to de-legislate criminal offenses related to the issuance of checks. The first Thai legislation prescribing criminal offenses arising from check issuance came into effect on 13 October 1954, making Thailand one of the few countries that impose criminal liability on the dishonest use of checks. While the 1954 law significantly deterred the public from using bad checks to commit fraud and other illegal…
In brief Recently, a groundbreaking court judgment marked a milestone in Chinese intellectual property (IP) law by recognising copyright protection for images generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The judgment carries significant implications for the future of AI and IP in China, as it indicates that the Chinese courts would be willing to recognise the copyrightability of AI-generated works in appropriate cases. While whether or not an AI-generated work is copyrightable in China will still need…
In brief A recent decision of the Hong Kong Court reaffirmed the robust approach taken by the Court in examining the enforceability of a non-compete clause in an employment context even at the interim-interim stage. A former employer has the burden of proof to adduce evidence to substantiate that a non-compete clause is reasonable and necessary for the protection of the former employer’s legitimate business interests for it to be enforceable. The Court will take…
In brief On 10 April 2024, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA), Hong Kong’s highest court, delivered its judgment in Tam Sze Leung & Ors v Commissioner of Police [2024] HKCFA 8, affirming the validity of the ‘No Consent Regime’ (“Regime”) of the Hong Kong Police (“Police”). As we set out in our previous alerts (here, here and here), the Regime encompassed a practice of issuing “Letters of No Consent” (LNCs) to financial institutions for customer accounts that…
In brief When would the directors of a company be bound to consider the interest of the company’s creditors? This was the issue at the heart of the Singapore Court of Appeal’s (SGCA) watershed decision in Foo Kian Beng v OP3 International Pte Ltd (in liquidation) [2024] SGCA 10, which comes hot on the heels of the UK Supreme Court’s pronouncements on the same issue in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25. In a…
A spotlight on enforcement and litigation risks In brief ESG is increasingly of prioritised concern to companies and organisations due to a growing number of legislations and regulations as well as awareness of ESG issues. Across jurisdictions, we see a rising trend towards more active ESG enforcement and litigation. In our The Year Ahead: Global Disputes Forecast 2024,[1] nearly three-quarters (73%) of the respondents said that environmental, social and governance (ESG) disputes presented as the…
New legislation passed which will put onus on companies – when did your company last undertake a risk assessment on corruption? In brief The Australian government has, after many years of deliberation, passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Bill 2023 (“Bill”) which introduces a new indictable corporate offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery. This offence will apply where an associate of a company has committed bribery in relation to a foreign public official for…