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Hauled from the Deep End? New (and One Old) Developments in Pennsylvania Personal Jurisdiction

By Bexis on June 24, 2019

First, we apologize to our readers for not publishing this post earlier. It contains new information that we’ve known about for a couple of weeks, but we felt we had to keep it under wraps temporarily until Bexis filed an amicus curiae brief (last Friday) in one of the cases we discuss. Just as we don’t want to do the other side’s research for them, we likewise don’t want to give them extra time to…

Life Sciences Legal Update

Join Us: Free CLE Webinar on U.S., German Approach to Trade Secrets Protection

By Lisa Baird on June 23, 2019

Reed Smith will be hosting an upcoming CLE webinar, “Germany discovers trade secret protection! A comparative dive into the German and U.S. approach” on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 at 12 p.m. BST and again at 12 p.m. ET. Trade secrets and technical know-how represent valuable assets, especially for industries like the life sciences. Until recently, the legal protection afforded to these assets was inconsistent or inadequate. The U.S. Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act…

FinTech Update

FINRA Issues First Litigated Enforcement Action Against Crowdfunding Portal

By Herbert F. Kozlov, C. Neil Gray, Le-el D. Sinai & Daphne Lambadariou on June 21, 2019

On June 5, 2019, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) panel handed down its first enforcement action against a funding portal. DreamFunded, a crowdfunding platform, was banned from FINRA membership, and Manny Fernandez, DreamFunded’s CEO, was barred from association with any FINRA funding portal member. DreamFunded and Fernandez were further ordered to cover $15,900 in hearing costs. Although FINRA previously settled with another crowdfunding website in 2016, the panel’s 148-page DreamFunded decision marks the first…

Drug & Device Law

The Other Shoe Drops: Summary Judgment for Bayer in Mirena IIH MDL

By Rachel B. Weil on June 21, 2019

Late last year, we published two posts (here and here) about the gutsy and laudable Daubert decision in the Mirena IIH (idiopathic intracranial hypertension) MDL, in which Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York excluded all seven of the plaintiffs’ general causation experts. At that point, we assumed that it was a foregone conclusion that the plaintiffs’ claims would be dismissed—that no plaintiff could get to a jury without general…

Real Estate Legal Update

French CNIL data protection authority hits property management firm with large GDPR violation penalty

By Daniel Kadar & Laetitia Gaillard on June 20, 2019

In a blog entry posted on Reed Smith’s Technology Law Dispatch Blog, authors Daniel Kadar and Laetitia Gaillard review the first large fine imposed under GDPR regulations. The company, French property management firm Sergic, failed to comply with its obligation to limit the storage of personal data and its security. The fine, €400,000, represents close to 1% of the company’s yearly turnover. Property owners, managers and developers who operate in GDPR signatory countries should review their…

Life Sciences Legal Update

DOJ Issues Opinion on FDA Jurisdiction Over Articles Used in Lawful Executions

By Rachael G. Pontikes, John D. Kendzior & Shaylynn Veeder on June 20, 2019

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Council (OLC) released an opinion in May 2019 addressing the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) jurisdiction over drugs used in capital punishment. A result of a request by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, the OLC issued an opinion following years of conflict around the use of sodium thiopental in executions. Most importantly, the OLC concluded that the FDA does not have jurisdiction over such articles, and this…

Technology Law Dispatch

EDPB completes guidelines on codes of conduct, certification and accreditation of certification bodies

By Cynthia O’Donoghue & Eleanor Brooks on June 20, 2019

At its eleventh plenary session on 4 June 2019 in Brussels, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted final versions of (1) the Guidelines 1/2019 on codes of conduct and monitoring bodies under Regulation 2016/679, (2) annex 2 to the Guidelines on certification criteria in accordance with Articles 42 and 43 of the Regulation 2016/679 and (3) the annex to the Guidelines on accreditation of certification bodies under Article 43 of the Regulation 2016/679…

Global Regulatory Enforcement Law Blog

CNIL imposes hefty sanction on French company under GDPR

By Daniel Kadar & Laetitia Gaillard on June 20, 2019

On May 28 2019, the French data protection authority Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) imposed a €400,000 fine on French property management company Sergic for neglecting to maintain the security of and to limit the storage of personal data. This is the first sanction imposed on a French company under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is also the most significant financial penalty imposed on a French company for data breaches…

Technology Law Dispatch

Claims for transfers of Patents: clarification on time limits

By Anette Gaertner & Jonathan Diehl on June 20, 2019

Germany is one of the most important patent litigation jurisdictions in Europe, making developments in its patent law very important to globally operating companies. In recent years, the number of cases regarding claims for the transfer of patents has risen steadily in Germany. If an application is filed by someone who is not entitled to the patent, the inventor (or his successor) can demand that the application or granted patent be transferred to him. When…

Drug & Device Law

Litigation Funder Indictment in Pelvic Mesh Litigation

By Bexis on June 20, 2019

We’ve blogged a number of times about how litigation funding arrangements collide with various ethical and statutory obligations owed by either the funders or the lawyers they fund. But when the New York Times reported on the questionable funding arrangements that have occurred in Pelvic Mesh litigation in its 2018 article, “How Profiteers Lure Women Into Often-Unneeded Surgery,” we knew that something more was going on. Since, as the article revealed, “[p]eople are…

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