Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2016. Smith Gambrell partner Bruce Alexander McDonald has returned to the United States after attending a meeting of advisors to the Intellectual Property Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow, Russia. The meeting was convened on November 25, 2016, by Chief Judge Lyudmila Novoselova, to discuss the application of Russian law to the ownership and commercialization of intellectual property by Russian universities and research institutions. A copy of Mr. McDonald’s report to the IPC is available here, including the table of contents to a compilation of sample licenses and secondary sources, a copy of which is… Read more
On September 20, 2016, the Plano Chamber of Commerce and more than 55 Texas and national business groups (“Business Plaintiffs”) filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, against the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”), Secretary of Labor Perez, and other defendants to challenge the Final Rule promulgated by the DOL entitled “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees” (the “Rule”). The Plaintiffs argued that the Rule “exceed[ed] the authority of the DOL” and was “arbitrary, capricious, contrary to procedures required by law, and… Read more
In its July 2015 opinion in Baldwin v. Foxx, EEOC Appeal No. 0120133080, 2015 WL 4397641 (July 16, 2015), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) held that the prohibitions regarding sex discrimination under “Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination means that employers may not ‘rel[y] upon sex-based considerations’ or take gender into account when making employment decisions.” This prohibition extends “equally in claims brought by lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals under Title VII.” Looking beyond traditional definitions, the EEOC concluded that sexual orientation discrimination is inherently sex-based discrimination. Citing seminal sex-stereotyping cases such as Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S…. Read more
On October 2, 2016, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) published a Final rulemaking amendment that significantly amends the rules for practicing before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”). The amended rules are effective January 14, 2017. These amendments apply to both pending and new proceedings before the Board. Any transition issue for cases pending as of the effective date of the rules will be addressed by both the Board and the parties involved on a case-by-case basis. The amendments are intended to provide more efficiency and clarity in inter partes and ex parte proceedings before the Board,… Read more
The IRS has released the 2017 cost-of-living adjustments applicable to the dollar limitations on benefits and contributions of retirement plans and health and welfare benefit plans. Plan sponsors should update their systems and formulas to include the limits that have been adjusted. These limits are effective January 1, 2017. For a printable version of this chart, click here. For more information on these cost-of-living adjustments, contact your SGR Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits counsel. SGR is in the process of preparing our yearly laminated chart of benefit limitations, but in the interim, we wanted to provide you with a quick overview of… Read more
Starting in July of 2017, employers in Cook County, Illinois must provide paid sick leave. The Cook County Board passed the ordinance only a few months after the city of Chicago passed a similar measure that will also take effect July 2017. Consequently, employers in Chicago and Cook County should begin to prepare. The Cook County Ordinance is largely modeled after the Chicago Paid Sick Leave Ordinance and requires employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Employees are eligible to earn annually up to five full days of paid sick leave, or 40… Read more
New York employers should be aware of their obligations under New York Election Law §3-110. Pursuant to this statute, if an employee does not have sufficient time outside his/her working hours to vote, he/she is allowed to take up to two hours at the beginning or end of his/her shift, with pay, to enable him/her to vote. Sufficient time is defined as an employee having four consecutive hours either between the opening of the polls and the beginning of his/her working shift, or between the end of his/her working shift and the closing of the polls. If the employee requires… Read more
An October 5, 2016 Order from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulations (OIR) granted final approval for a statewide workers’ compensation rate increase of 14.5 percent to take effect December 1, 2016. On May 27, 2016, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (“NCCI”) filed a Revised Workers’ Compensation Rates and Rating Values for consideration and review by the OIR that sought an overall rate increase of 19.6 percent. In support, NCCI argued the increases were necessary to offset the projected impact of the Florida Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Castellanos v. Next Door Company and Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg. In Castellanos, the Court… Read more
No sooner did employers submit their 2016 EEO-1 filings, than a new EEO-1 form requiring more detailed information was approved by the EEOC. Generally, federal contractors and private employers with 100 or more employees are required to complete the well-established EEO-1 report each year. Employers currently provide employment data that identifies by job category demographic information about race, gender and ethnicity. The revised EEO-1 form now requires that employers also provide the aggregate of employees’ pay, as reflected in Box 1 of W-2 forms, by job category and broken down by race, gender, and ethnicity. The EEOC announced its original proposal… Read more
Consider this your three-month warning. The time has come for employers nationwide to begin preparing for new Department of Labor (“DOL”) overtime exemption requirements. On May 18, 2016, the DOL announced publication of its final rule updating the regulations governing whether executive, administrative, and professional employees (“White Collar Exemptions”) are entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The final version of the regulations may be viewed here. The revised regulations are slated to take effect December 1, 2016, unless Congress acts on stalled legislation to nullify the proposed regulations, and that does not appear… Read more
