Cooley Law Firm

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a Report to Congress, has adopted new standards for determining when internet services are fast enough to qualify as broadband services. The report sets the speed threshold at 100 megabits per second (Mbps) for downstream traffic and 20 Mbps for upstream traffic for fixed services; 35 Mbps downstream and three Mbps upstream for mobile service; and one gigabit per second (Gbps) downstream per 1,000…

On 6 March 2024, the US Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury and Department of Justice issued a Tri-Seal Compliance Note (compliance note) advising foreign-based companies and individuals to assess their obligations with respect to US export control and sanctions laws and regulations (trade controls) and implement appropriate measures designed to achieve compliance. This compliance note follows a prior publication issued by the same three agencies in July 2023…

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) recently published guidance to assist employers in complying with Senate Bill 553 ahead of the law’s employer compliance date of July 1, 2024. As we reported in November 2023, SB 553 requires virtually all employers to develop, implement, and maintain an “effective” written workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP), as well as train employees, and create and maintain extensive records regarding workplace violence.…

On 12 March 2024, the UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) announced that UK export control regulations would be amended to introduce new controls on the export of emerging technologies and provide a number of technical updates. Implemented through the Export Control (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the amendments are set to come into force on 1 April 2024. The Export Control Order 2008 The regulations introduce new export controls on military…

Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – March 19, 2024 – Cooley was honored for its work on three Deals of the Year in 2023 by China Business Law Journal (CBLJ). The publication noted the firm for deals across three practice areas – including mergers & acquisitions, private equity financing, and life sciences partnering and licensing. Each year, CBLJ recognizes the best Chinese and international law firms in various practice area…

On February 2, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a much-awaited final rule: the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR).1  By issuing this rule, FDA amended the medical device current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements of 21 CFR Part 820 – the Quality System Regulation (QSR) – to align more closely with the quality management system (QMS) requirements used by other countries. The QMSR incorporates by reference the…

Last Friday, a federal court in Alabama ruled in National Small Business United v. Yellen that the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements established by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) are unconstitutional. These CTA provisions, implemented through the BOI reporting rule promulgated by the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in September 2022, just started taking effect on January 1, 2024. Pursuant to the CTA and the…

The European Commission’s Recommendation on critical technology areas for the EU’s economic security, issued on October 3, 2023, kick-started an urgent risk assessment by policymakers and private sector stakeholders across the European Union. While this work will be completed over the next few months, policymakers have already given a strong indication that four technology areas – advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and biotech – are critical for the EU’s…

Artificial intelligence has transformed the way we live, work and even think. While AI offers seemingly endless potential benefits in the workplace – including improvements in efficiency, cost cutting and innovation – employers must balance those benefits with the legal risks of using AI tools in employment processes. Employers using these tools also must attempt to keep up with regulatory and technological developments in a rapidly evolving space. Below, we’ve…

On August 18, 2023, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a first-of-its-kind federal court decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter, et al., agreeing with the US Copyright Office that works generated entirely by artificial intelligence are not copyrightable for lack of human authorship. The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that copyright’s adaptability to new technologies is expansive enough to contemplate AI authorship.…

In January 2023, the European Union adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires EU and non-EU companies with activities in the EU to file annual sustainability reports alongside their financial statements. These reports must be prepared in accordance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). On July 31, 2023, the European Commission adopted the first set of ESRS. The ESRS soon will become law and will apply directly in…

San Diego – August 4, 2023 – The California Supreme Court yesterday issued a landmark decision in Turner v. Victoria et al., which ensures essential whistleblower protections for more than 110,000 charities across California. Cooley represented plaintiff and appellant Debra Turner in successfully petitioning the court to review her case and in achieving a sweeping victory on the merits for Turner and for all California charities. Lawyers Steve Strauss, Erin…

The UK government has announced its intention to limit the duration of noncompete post-termination restrictions in employment contracts to a maximum of three months. Noncompete covenants are designed to provide business protection to an employer by seeking to restrict a former employee from undertaking employment with a rival competitor for a defined period following the termination of their employment. Noncompetition covenants are common in employment contracts with senior or key…

In September 2020, the European Commission adopted a digital finance package with the aim of creating a supportive regulatory framework to enable the digital transformation of the European Union’s financial industry. It established the groundbreaking piece of regulation – the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) – to provide a harmonised regulatory framework for crypto-assets in the EU. MiCAR came into force on 29 June 2023, almost three years later, and…

Recently, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) made clear that it intends to make discrimination caused by artificial intelligence (AI) tools an enforcement priority over the next four years. This enforcement priority follows the EEOC’s 2021 announcement of its Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Fairness Initiative, which launched an agency-wide effort to ensure AI tools and other emerging technologies used in making employment decisions comply with the federal civil rights…

Stock issued by a corporation is treated as qualified small business stock (QSBS) only if, among other requirements, at least 80% of its assets (by value) are used by the issuing corporation in the active conduct of one or more “qualified trades or businesses” (the active business requirement) during substantially all of the applicable investor’s holding period for such stock. This requirement has become particularly relevant to many startup and…

On May 3, 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation into law increasing New York’s minimum wage for most employees beginning January 1, 2024, through 2026. Enacted as part of the state’s budget legislation, increases to the minimum wage beginning in 2027 and beyond will be indexed to the consumer price index. Below, we’ve outlined what employers should know about this development. Minimum wage increases, 2024 – 2026 The…

On 19 May 2023, the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published the National Semiconductor Strategy, setting out the UK’s 20-year vision to grow deep foundations in semiconductor technology, while also bolstering the UK’s national security and resilience in an industry that has suffered supply chain issues and geopolitical tensions. 1. Growing the domestic sector The strategy recognises the importance of semiconductor technology to the growth of the UK…

In a much-anticipated opinion released on June 1, 2023, the US Supreme Court held that the scienter element of the False Claims Act (FCA) turns on the defendant’s “knowledge and subjective beliefs” – not on “what an objectively reasonable person may have known or believed.” The unanimous decision in the consolidated cases, United States ex rel. Schutte v. Supervalu Inc. and United States ex rel. Proctor v. Safeway Inc., held…

Increasingly, many small-cap and microcap public companies are failing to secure stockholder approval of critical proposals, particularly for reverse stock splits and authorized share increases. With heavy concentration of shares held in street name (i.e., by retail investors in US brokerage accounts), these companies historically have relied on brokerage firms to vote retail shares both to establish a quorum – the minimum threshold in voting power of shares that must…