Client Alerts

February

• 2/21/2020
  Intellectual Property Alert: Where and How You Store Your Servers May Subject You to Patent Litigation in a Distant Jurisdiction
  With the growth of big data and cloud computing, more and more businesses are moving their computer servers offsite to large server farms or server clusters.
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• 2/18/2020
  Client Alert: New Push for Another U.S. Privacy Law as Washington State Senate Approves the Washington Privacy Act (SB 6281)
  Washington legislators recently reintroduced the Washington Privacy Act (WPA). Learn more about this draft bill.
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• 2/18/2020
  Client Alert: Recent Changes to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) Regulations
  New regulations governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) took effect on February 13, 2020.
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• 2/17/2020
  Client Alert: Bankruptcy Court Orders Denying Relief From the Automatic Stay Must Be Appealed Within 14 Days
  The United States Supreme Court recently made clear that bankruptcy litigation is different than most civil litigation when it unanimously held that a bankruptcy court’s order denying relief from the automatic stay is a final appealable order. 
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• 2/10/2020
  Client Alert: California Attorney General Releases Modified CCPA Draft Regulations
  On February 7, 2020, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released proposed modifications (the Modifications) to the previously-released draft regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
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• 2/6/2020
  Labor and Employment Alert: Philadelphia Salary Inquiry Ban Upheld by Third Circuit
  In 2017, Philadelphia became the first city to prohibit private employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s wage history and from relying on an applicant’s wage history in setting his or her salary.
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• 2/4/2020
  Immigration Alert: New Version of Form I-9 Available – Use of New Version Becomes Mandatory Starting May 1, 2020
  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
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• 2/3/2020
  Labor and Employment Alert: New Jersey Requires Paid Severance in Mass Layoffs
  The federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act (WARN Act) requires employers to provide employees with advance notice of certain plant closings and mass layoffs.
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January

• 1/31/2020
  Labor and Employment Alert: Maryland Bans the Box
  Over Governor Larry Hogan’s veto, the Maryland General Assembly recently enacted legislation to prohibit employers from initially seeking job applicants’ criminal records. 
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• 1/30/2020
  Federal Tax Bulletin: Final Qualified Opportunity Zone Regulations Adopt Many Changes
  On December 19, 2019, two years after the federal Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) program was enacted, the Treasury Department released final regulations providing guidance on how to apply the rules under this program.
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• 1/27/2020
  Intellectual Property Alert: 2020 Intellectual Property Primer: Cases to Watch this Year
  2020 is likely to be a busy and influential year for intellectual property cases before the United States Supreme Court.
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• 1/21/2020
  Federal Tax Bulletin: Retroactive Repeal of the ‘Parking Tax’ for Tax-Exempt Employers
  As part of general federal tax reform in 2017, Congress enacted a provision that required tax-exempt organizations to pay tax on certain amounts paid or incurred for employee parking (the Parking Tax).
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• 1/14/2020
  Health Care Alert: Real Property Tax Exemptions for Your Residential Care Facilities and Nursing Homes May Be at Risk
  On January 7, 2020, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) issued a decision that arguably cuts against prior BTA and Ohio Supreme Court decisions regarding the “life care” requirements for real property tax exemptions for homes for the aged contained in Ohio Revised Code (R.C.) 5709.12.
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• 1/7/2020
  State and Local Tax Alert: Proposed Ohio Legislation Would Apply Real Estate Transfer Tax to Pass-Through Entity Transfers and Result in Increased Tax Valuations
  On December 17, 2019, Representatives Green and Skindell introduced a bill (H.B. 449) to apply the conveyance fee tax to transfers of a controlling interest in a pass-through entity that owns real estate.
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December

• 12/31/2019
  Benefits Alert: The Impact on Health & Welfare Plans in the New Year based on the Fifth Circuit’s ACA Ruling and the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020
  On December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in Texas v. U.S. that the provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires individuals to maintain health insurance or pay a “shared responsibility payment” (i.e., the individual mandate) is unconstitutional.
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• 12/23/2019
  Labor and Employment Alert: 162(m) Regulations Proposed
  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act generally eliminated the exception to the $1M deduction cap imposed under Code Section 162(m).
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• 12/18/2019
  Labor and Employment Alert: Medical Marijuana Users are Eligible for Unemployment Compensation in Michigan
  The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA) grants qualified medical marijuana users who are using marijuana in accordance with the MMMA immunity from “arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner.”
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• 12/17/2019
  Intellectual Property Alert: Patent Prosecution Highway in India and Brazil
  Recently, Brazil and India, both top ten largest world economies and common targets for patent filings, have made changes to their PPH programs to increase the speed at which patents are issued.
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• 12/13/2019
  Labor and Employment Alert: Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prohibits Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination
  Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia currently prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression.
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• 12/11/2019
  Benefits Alert: 2019 Roundup: A Look Back at Employee Benefits Developments
  The Vorys Employee Benefits Team has drafted alerts covering an array of regulatory and legislative changes throughout the year.
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