Ten recommendations for the data reforms of the decade

As the new Commission and Parliament, and Council of Ministers, roll up their sleeves for final work on the  EU General Data Protection Regulation, Partner Ruth Boardman and Consultant Francis Aldhouse, stand back and suggest ten ideas to improve data protection.

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UAE: What are some of the potential legal issues surrounding TV formats?

TV shows are big business.  According to tview’s annual report (http://tview.ae), Arabs’ Got Talent, The Voice and Arab Idol were the top three TV shows watched by UAE households in 2013. What do these popular TV shows have in common? The answer; they are all extremely successful (and lucrative) TV formats.

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How a Unitary Patent and a Unified Patent Court will change your EU patent strategy and what you can do now to prepare

The Unitary Patent system, including the Unified Patent Court, is not yet operational. The target date of early 2015 has recently been acknowledged as being overly ambitious; the end of 2015 is now said to be the earliest that can be achieved. Despite the delay, patent proprietors and applicants should be thinking now about their strategy for meeting the challenge created by this new intellectual property right.

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Margrethe Vestager: the new EU Competition Commissioner unveils her agenda to the European Parliament

On 10 September 2014, Margrethe Vestager, former Danish minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, was nominated by Commission president-elect, Jean-Claude Juncker, as European Union Commissioner for Competition. On 2 October, Ms Vestager appeared before the European Parliament for a three-hour confirmation hearing during which she explained the top priorities for her term of office.

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Russian import sanctions lead to EU market support (aid) measures

As detailed in our newsletter of September 17, 2014, the European Union ("EU") has extended the scope of the sanctions against Russia.

In its turn, Russia enacted on August 6, 2014 Decree No. 560 prohibiting the importing of certain listed agricultural products, raw materials and foodstuffs to Russia from the USA, EU Member States, Canada, Australia and Norway, following the restrictive measures imposed on Russian legal and natural persons by those countries.

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