The 4th Annual Summit on Anti-Money Laundering by Fintelekt, will be held on October 17, 2014 at Mumbai. This event, which is the country's flagship conference on the subject, will provide an exclusive platform for dialogue between regulators, financial industry practitioners and consultants on various aspects of AML and CFT within the financial services industry in India. The agenda is available at the following link: http://www.fintelekt.com/aml-4th-annual-summit-2014 To register for this summit please fill the form on our website and we will get in touch with you for the registration process.

The Seedling School of Law and Governance is now gearing up to organize the 3rd edition of the moot competition. The 3rd International Banking and Investment Law Moot Court Competition 2014 is being organized by Seedling School of Law and Governance, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, Rajasthan from October 10-1 2, 2014. The competition is perhaps only one of its kind on the Asian sub-continent. It seeks to promote interest in the area of Banking and Investment Laws and more specifically, to kindle in law student's interest in the expanding field of International Banking and Investment Law. This year's Moot Problem focuses on Leveraged Leasing and investment issues adjunct to international trade in equipment. The moot organisers have also requested the Asian Society of International Law to be associated with the Competition. For further information, you may contact Dr. Mithilesh Vishwakarma at +91 9414852496 or email the organzing committee at sslg.mcc@gmail.com.

An aggressive industry research that Lex Witness conducted within the various stakeholders of the industry reflects a lot of ambiguity in the understanding of the current legal & regulatory regime. The 3rd Annual Edition of Media, Advertising &Entertainment Legal Summit 2014 promises to brainstorm on the challenges faced by the Media, Advertising & Entertainment Industry. www.maels.in

The Pharma Legal & Compliance Summit was launched in 2012 and ever since has successfully come up with 2 editions. The 3rd Annual Edition is to be scheduled for 19th September 2014, Mumbai and brings to you a day of brainstorming sessions with the leaders and veterans of the industry. www.plcs.co.in

In connection with the suggestions of Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India for all courts in the country to work for 365 days, Pravin H. Parekh, Senior Advocate and the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) wrote on behalf of the SCBA about the concerns of the lawyers nationwide if this proposal were to be given finality and implemented. A copy of the said representation is available here.

The new UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty–based Investor-State Arbitration is a welcome development and will come into effect on April 1, 2014. The New Rules will be applicable to all investment arbitrations commenced under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, which is pursuant to a treaty, providing for the protection of investments or investors provided the Treaty is concluded after April 1, 2014. The New Rules will also be available, in investor-state arbitrations, initiated under rules other than the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules or in ad hoc proceedings, if the disputing parties agree towards its applicability. In respect to investment arbitration, pursuant to a Treaty concluded before April 1, 2014, the New Rules would apply only if the parties agree to their application.

(Source: Nishith Desai Associates)

In a landmark decision the Supreme Court of India has expressly removed allegations of fraud as a bar to refer parties to foreign seated arbitrations. The Supreme Court by its decision dated January 24, 2014 in World Sport Group (Mauritius) Ltd v. MSM Satellite (Singapore) Pte. Ltd set aside the judgment of the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in MSM Satellite (Singapore) Pte. Ltd v. World Sport Group (Mauritius) Ltd dated September 17, 2010. Previously as the law stood, allegations of fraud were arguably not arbitrable under Indian Law. The Supreme Court has now clarified the position, removing another possible hurdle that one could face while arbitration against Indian parties outside India.

(Source: Nishith Desai Associates)

Thomson Reuters, world's leading source of information for businesses and professionals, today announced that Trilegal, a leading law firm in India has selected MatterSphere as its matter management solution to consolidate the firm’s content, document, practice and resource management functions. With this agreement, the firm becomes the first MatterSphere customer in India.MatterSphere is a unified matter management solution that lets lawyers easily manage clients, matters and all associated details from a centralized location. With customers ranging from mid-market firms, specialty practices, and large global firms, MatterSphere embeds client and matter information within Microsoft Office applications and simplifies everyday activities, from billing to reviewing case files, all while offering the seamless mobility and 24/7 accessibility that customers expect. The matter-centric solution, with capabilities that can be tailored easily to meet their unique requirements, helps law firms overcome the challenges of siloed data and the traditional divide between transactional and case-based information thereby resulting in reduced costs, improved profitability, and increased client satisfaction.

On March 26, 2014 the Competition Commission of India ("CCI/Commission") passed an order imposing a fine of Rs. 10 Million on Google USA and Google India ("Google") as they had failed to cooperate with the Director General ("DG") in relation to an investigation ("CCI Order").1 The DG was acting pursuant to information filed by Consim Info Private Limited and Consumer Unity & Trust Society ("Informants").The imposition of penalty arose in the context of collateral proceedings initiated by the DG since Google, allegedly, was not cooperating with the DG. On an examination of the various notices sent by the DG, the replies sent by Google, the information supplied and the conduct of Google, CCI held that Google failed to show cause as to why penalty ought not to be imposed on them.The present ruling is only confined to imposition of penalty due to a party’s failure to comply with directions of the DG under Section 43 of the Competition Act, 2002 ("Competition Act"). Google will have to comply with the directions of the DG and submit the relevant information. After completion of investigation, CCI will examine whether there is a violation of Section 3 and Section 4 of the Competition Act.

(Source: Nishith Desai Associates)

In a recent case of Reliance Industries Ltd. & Ors. v. Union of India, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India ("Supreme Court") ruled that in an international commercial arbitration if the two nominated arbitrators failed to reach a consensus on the appointment of the third/presiding arbitrator, considerations of neutrality and impartiality are of great significance. The Supreme Court observed that considerations of nationality were not mandatory while making a decision on the appointment of the third arbitrator. This is certainly a welcome judgment as it provides clarity on the interpretation of Section 11(6) and 11(9) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ("Act").

(Source: Nishith Desai Associates)

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) is pleased to announce that Mr Kevin Nash has been appointed to the position of Deputy Registrar of SIAC with effect from 1 August 2014. Kevin will succeed Mr Vivekananda N. who is returning to private practice. Vivekananda had acted as both Deputy Registrar and Head (South Asia) at SIAC, and was instrumental in the establishment of SIAC’s first overseas liaison office in Mumbai, India in 2013. During Vivekananda’s tenure, the number of filings with SIAC generated by Indian parties reached a record high of 85 matters in 2013. Ms Scheherazade Dubash will now lead SIAC’s India liaison office.

As Deputy Registrar, Kevin will assist the Registrar, Ms Tan Ai Leen, in the administration of cases filed with SIAC and the supervision of SIAC’s multinational Secretariat. In his previous role as Counsel at SIAC, Kevin administered more than 250 arbitrations under various institutional rules, including the SIAC Rules and UNCITRAL Rules. He also handled numerous cases conducted under the Expedited Procedure and Emergency Arbitrator applications for urgent interim relief prior to the constitution of a tribunal.

The annual second station of "6^th China IP Counsel Congress 2014" organized by JFPS Group had already been held successfully in Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai-Pudong, Shanghai, China on June 26^th-27^th. Following the theme of Shenzhen Chapter event last month - “Improving the IP Management by Best Practice Sharing & Trend Analysis”, this Shanghai Chapter has successfully attracted more than 120 IP Directors, Patent Directors, General Counsels, IP Lawyers, IP Investors etc. from lots of famous companies in the industries of Telecommunication, Electronics, Home Appliance, Pharmaceutical, Chemical Products, FMCG etc. and renowned law firms, IP agencies, IP licensing companies to get together with discussion covered almost 15 hot topics, and 14 professional speakers from IP School of East China University of Political Science and Law, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Unilever, Hershey, Asia Pulp and Paper, Akzo Nobel, Kilpatrick Townsend, Questel, CPA Global etc. gave their splendid speeches & Workshops, shared practical experience as well.

Mr Sarosh Zaiwalla, Founder and Senior Partner of the internationally renowned City law firm, Zaiwalla and Co Solicitors, was honoured with the Global Leader Award for International Law at the inaugural "SkillTree Great Place To Study – India Edition" awards ceremony at London’s world famous Madame Tussauds. Mr Zaiwalla was recognised for an outstanding legal career, which started with Mr Zaiwalla becoming the first Asian to set up a law firm in the City of London in 1982. Today, Mr Zaiwalla has been involved in over 1,000 high-profile international litigations and arbitration cases. Mr Zaiwalla has also acted for clients ranging from the President of India, the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Iranian Government to the Bachchan and Gandhi families in India. Mr Zaiwalla is regarded as a leading expert in arbitration and sanctions, and has led the senior team handling the case for Iran’s largest private bank, Bank Mellat, in its case against Her Majesty’s Treasury in the UK’s Supreme Court. The firm is representing the bank in its $4 billion USD damages claim, and has successfully had sanctions imposed on the bank by the UK government overturned. The "SkillTree Great Place To Study – India Edition" initiative has been spearheaded by SkillTree Knowledge Consortium, India’s first syndicate of private universities and institutions in the country, and was presented in association with the international brand consultancy Sterling Media and powered by Lavasa Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of HCC (Hindustan Construction Company). The awards presentation acknowledged the contribution of 20 of India’s leading educational institutions to promote India as a great place to study, as well as honouring six of the UK’s most enterprising, innovative and successful business leaders and public office dignitaries, who have all played their part in promoting relations between India and UK. The ceremony was attended by Indian and British high profile dignitaries, public figures, leaders from the education and business sector, billionaires and celebrities including: Deputy Indian High Commissioner Mr. Virander Paul, The Rt. Hon Keith Vaz, MP for Leicester East & Chairman, Home Affairs Select Committee, international security magnate Dr Richie Nanda, Executive Chairman of TOPSGRUP and The Shield Group, Dr Rami Ranger MBE, Lord Navnit Dholakia OBE, the Rt Hon Lord Swraj Paul of Marylebone, Chairman of Caparo Group, Mark Pritchard MP, The Rt. Hon Baroness Sandeep Verma, Minister for Energy & Climate Change, Commodore Sandeep Beecha, Dame Asha Khemka, Principal and Chief Executive of West Nottinghamshire College. In commenting about his award win, Mr Zaiwalla said, "I am honoured and grateful to have been awarded with this very prestigious award." Over the years Mr Zaiwalla has been recognised for his work, and in1998, Mr Zaiwalla was made a Freeman of The City of London by the Lord Mayor of London. This followed in October 2002, where Mr Zaiwalla was given India’s Annual National Law Day Award by the Indian Prime Minister for his outstanding contribution to the field of International Arbitration Law.

In a personal injury case involving the expansion of jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (28 §§ U.S.C. 1602 et seq. ("FSIA")), the U.S. Supreme Court has invited the U.S. Solicitor General to comment on the petition for certiorari recently filed on behalf of OBB Personenverkehr AG ("OBB"), the railway instrumentality of the Republic of Austria. The case was filed against OBB by a U.S. citizen who was injured in a train-related accident in Innsbruck, Austria. OBB seeks to reverse a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals en banc decision stripping OBB of immunity under the FSIA notwithstanding its status as an instrumentality of a foreign state with no office or operations in the U.S. The Ninth Circuit held that the commercial activity exception to the FSIA applies because the claim is based on plaintiff's online purchase of a Eurail pass from a Massachusetts-based internet ticket seller, even though the seller had no contractual relationship with OBB and the accident occurred during travel outside of the U.S. The decision, if it stands, could lead to an expansion of U.S. jurisdiction over state-owned air carriers for accidents occurring outside of the U.S. OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs, 737 F.3d 584 (9th Cir. 2013).

(Source: Clyde & Co.)

The Commercial Court in Habas Sinai Ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi AS v VSC Steel Company Ltd reaffirmed the principle laid down in Sul America Cia Nacional De Seguros S.A. and others v Enesa Engenharia S.A and Arsanovia Ltd v Cruz City Mauritius Holdings. In particular, the Court held that in order to determine the law governing the arbitration agreement, the choice of the seat and also the terms of the arbitration agreement plays a huge significance as they give a strong indication about the proper law of the arbitration agreement.The Court summarized the principles laid down in Sul America and Arsanovia, including the three stage test that the proper law is to be determined by undertaking a three stage enquiry into: (i) express choice; (ii) implied choice; and (iii) the system of law with which the arbitration agreement has the closest and most real connection. The Court added that the terms of the arbitration agreement may also indicate an implied choice of law of the arbitration agreement.

(Source: Nishith Desai Associates)

The US Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Northwest, Inc. v. Ginsberg, a closely-watched pre-emption case arising from a frequent flyer program dispute out of the Ninth Circuit. The US Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' holding that claims for breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing are "categorically exempted" from pre-emption under the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 ("ADA") because they are "too tenuously connected to airline regulation to trigger pre-emption under the ADA." The class action lawsuit was commenced by a former participant in the Northwest WorldPerks Platinum Elite frequent flyer program after the airline revoked his membership for abuse. The district court in California dismissed the plaintiff's claim for breach of good faith and fair dealing as pre-empted by the ADA. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and reinstated the claim as exempted from ADA pre-emption because it was too remotely connected to "prices, routes or services."

(Source: Clyde & Co.)

Followed by Shenzhen Station in May, the "6th China IP Counsel Congress" organized by JFPS Group will come to Shanghai on June 26~27 of this year. Based on great success and solid foundation created by the 2013 Annual National Tour of the "5th China IP Counsel Congress" in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, the Shanghai Station of the "6th China IP Counsel Congress" continue the core value of creating the best platform for the senior IP practitioners, will focus on Eastern China again, and attract numerous high-tech companies specially from Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang where the new force of patent in China are developing. Four topics areas as Creation, Protection, Utilization and Management including new policy explanation, market trend analysis, best practice sharing and strategic management in IP will be covered and discussed in details. More information can be found at http://www.ipcounselcongress.com/2014shanghai/.

The Annual first station - Shenzhen Station of "6th China IP Counsel Congress" organized by JFPS Group has already been held successfully in JW Marriott Shenzhen on May 15th~16th. With the theme of "Improving the IP Management by Best Practice Sharing & Trend Analysis", this chapter Congress has successfully attracted more than 200 IP Directors, Patent Directors, Chief IP Counsels, General Counsels, IP Lawyers, IP Investors etc. from the famous companies in the industries of Telecommunication / Electronic, Information Technology, Home Appliance, Pharmaceutical, Chemical Products, FMCG etc. and renowned law firms, IP agencies, IP licensing companies to get together with discussion covered almost 20 hot topics, and 23 professional speakers from Tongji University, High Court of Guangdong Province, Taiwan Technology Law Institute, Netac Technology, Intellectual Ventures, Microsoft, China Telecom, ZTE Corporation, TCL, Dennemeyer, Stolmár & Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Bereskin & Parr LLP, Marietti, Gislon e Trupiano Srl etc. gave their splendid speeches & Workshops, shared practical experience as well.Besides the excellent speeches by speakers, there were two "Workshops" set up in the last section of this Congress, which is an innovation different with previous events as well. Led by Chairman Liu, the six speakers from three fields – Corporate, Agency and Judge were separated into two groups with the topics of "Dealing with Divergence of the Judging Criteria in Patent Litigation" and "Solutions to The Difficulties In Forensics Concerning Lawsuits of Business Secrets" respectively, contributed experience sharing from respective field and angle successively, and join the hot discussion with delegates in the venue.