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The UK has long been experiencing a shortage of talent within the IT sector. According to a recent survey conducted by ‘Solving the UK Skills Shortage – Technology’, over 70% of technology employers are experiencing skills shortages. This has been further impacted by Brexit. The survey concluded that a whopping 89% of professionals believe that the UK technology industry is not prepared to compete on a global scale. Read the full article here.

The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is falling behind in their review of trademark applications. Since the end of 2018, the average time between an application for trademark registration being filed and the Examining Attorney reviewing the application and issuing a first action indicating whether the mark is allowable has hovered between 2.5 months and 3.5 months. However, in 2021, that time to first action has almost doubled! Read the full article here.

Completing the legalities needed for a computer game is best compared with trying to do a jigsaw: It’s impossible without all the pieces. Read the article here.

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, President Biden announced as part of his six-pronged national strategy to combat COVID-19 that he has directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop and issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”). It will require all private employers with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workforce is fully vaccinated or will require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before reporting to work. Read the full article here.

Australia’s key privacy authorities have jointly issued five privacy principles to guide policymakers and businesses in a universal approach to handling personal information during the pandemic. Read the full article here.

Two key bills focused on giving California homeowners greater power to become small-scale developers of middle-income housing could significantly impact real estate development across the state and particularly in San Diego. The two bills, SB 10 (Senator Wiener) and SB 9 (Senator Atkins), were signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 16, 2021. Read the full article here.

As a startup founder, raising money can feel like an enormous mountain to climb. Many go through dozens or hundreds of pitches before they find the investors that will say yes - and are truly the right fit. And when the deal comes and the cash hits the bank account, the time spent and stress involved are all worth it. Read the full article here.

Since the dawn of the electric industry, individuals, and businesses have been regarded as “ratepayers”—consumers who sole purpose is to pay the rate imposed upon them by the powers that be, with limited input into the process. Read the full article here.

As we indicated in our prior Alert and recent Webinar on this subject, this summer, the European Commission released eagerly anticipated Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transfers to third countries (the “New Data Transfer SCCs”). The New Data Transfer SCCs are “model data protection clauses” that businesses can utilize to help ensure that they are in compliance with certain obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read the full article here.

Many of the proposals from the previous tax bill have been removed. However, the limitation on the exclusion of gain from the sale of 1202 stock has remained in the current proposed tax bill. For the most part, the limitation has not changed. Read the full article here.

On January 1, 2021, Congress overrode former President Trump’s veto of H.R. 6395, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 (the “NDAA”). Title LXIV of the NDAA enacts the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”).1 The CTA, among other things, requires every business entity that meets the definition of a “reporting company” to make a filing with the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) identifying its beneficial owner or owners. The CTA also imposes severe penalties on entities that fail to comply with its reporting obligation. Read the full article here.

Two new California Supreme Court decisions clarifying and limiting the state's "prevailing wage" law should be good news to public works construction contractors, subcontractors and suppliers with projects in the state. Construction Law litigator Laurence Phillips and Labor & Employment litigator Tyler Paetkau explain why. Read the full article here.