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We remind that on March 23, 2016, the new EU Trade Mark Regulation 2015/2424 came into force, implying significant changes to the current legislation in this field. A number of these changes will come into force on October 1, 2017. The key ones are: The cancellation of the “graphical representation" requirement. The current procedure for the registration of a trademark implies its mandatory presentation in a graphic form. On October 1, the trade mark can be represented in any form, provided that it is clear, self-contained, intelligible and objective. Thus, the applicant will have more opportunities to register such non-traditional types of trade marks as holograms, moving objects, smells, sounds, etc. The guidance of the EUIPO as to the formats of representation are provided at its official website: www.euipo.europa.eu The possibility of applying for EU Certification Marks. This mark is a guarantee of compliance with a specific standard and it is defined as being "capable of distinguishing goods or services which are certified by the proprietor of the mark in respect of material, mode of manufacture of goods or performance of services, quality, accuracy or other...

On September 4, 2017, the Central Bank of China, together with the National Commissions on Securities Regulation and five other local authorities, issued a Circular prohibiting the implementation of the ICO. According to the statement of the regulator, this decision was made in order to avoid financial risks. We remind that in the market of crypto currency, along with the concept of IPO (initial public offering), the concept of ICO (initial coin offering) appeared. The latest operations involve raising capital by a company working with blockchain technology, by issuing not digital shares, but digital tokens. The feature of this type of investment is the absence of limit on the amount of funds invested, that is, any person who has a crypto-currency purse on a trading platform can invest even a tiny amount. In this case, if investing in the shares, the investor buys a share in the company, then the members of the ICO acquire only the internal coin. In addition, the primary offers of crypto currency tokens are a kind of unauthorized (which means illegal) fundraising and may be linked to financial pyramids and other frauds, and in the event of a company failure, the investors are not...

On September 7, from 10.00 to 12.00, in the premises of the European Business Association in Kyiv (Andreevsky Slope street, 1-A), a seminar on the topic "Problems of suspended tax invoices and ways to solve them" was held. The speaker was a leading tax lawyer of the company Finance Business Service, Roland Bondarets. The event was attended by more than 30 people, including the representatives of legal, consulting, investment, industrial (including heavy industry) and international manufacturing companies. The seminar consisted of two parts - theoretical and practical. In the first half, Roland Bondarets highlighted the legal framework of this problem, schematically demonstrated the way which the tax invoice went from the filing to the moment of its blocking. He reminded about the grounds for the decision of registration refusal of the TI / AC, and presented the algorithm of the taxpayer's actions in this the case to the attention of the present people. The lawyer considered the most common errors in completing the Technological table and other documentation relating to such technical issues as "excess" by the number of characters, lines or signs in the code of the goods or...

The European Commission has developed a new system of legislative verification of foreign direct investments. The President Jean-Claude Juncker announced it in his speech in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 13, 2017. Such an initiative was caused by the growing concern of some EU countries (primarily France, Germany and Italy) with regard to the investments from non-EU countries. To date, these investments are often targeted at strategically important sectors of the economy (for example, energy, telecommunications and technology). In his speech, the President confirmed that the EU will remain open to the foreign direct investment (FDI), but an "energetic and effective policy" should be developed pursuing two objectives: "to ensure an equal playing field with the rest of the world and protect the most important European assets from the investments that damage the legitimate interests of the EU or its individual members". The verification system proposed by the European Commission is aimed at improving cooperation and coordination between the Member States that check transactions affecting the security or public order. The President set out the developed...

The client asked us to help him organize his gambling business. He has developed his own virtual game, assuming acceptance of monetary rates, as well as a marketing strategy, after that he needed understanding how to implement his start-up while remaining in the legal field. Since the legislation of Ukraine prohibits gambling (including on the Internet), our task was to find another jurisdiction for obtaining a gaming license, which mandatory requirements were accessibility and simplicity of the procedure for obtaining a license, as well as a low tax burden, since the client did not have experience in this sphere, and the profitability of the future business still had to be checked. In fact, the project turned out to be complex, since it supposed the organization of gambling business from scratch. The process of its implementation included the following stages: 1. registration of a legal entity, which in practice resulted in the business structuring; 2. registration and transfer of copyright to the developed software; 3. opening a bank account and concluding agreements with the providers of payment systems for the ability to conduct transactions (accept cash rates, make payouts of...

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed a draft law "On Amendments to article 201 of the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the registration of the tax invoices / adjustment calculations in the Unified Register of the tax invoices". The proposed amendments, designed to simplify the procedure for the registration of TI, will be considered soon by the Cabinet. We remind that this summer the Ukrainian business was stirred up by the innovation in the tax legislation concerning the launch of the system of automatic registration suspension of the risk invoices (clause 201.16 of article 201 of section V of the Tax Code of Ukraine). Starting from July 1, daily registration of approximately 0,4% of the tax invoices is suspended, including not only fictitious ones, but also those ones that are submitted by the enterprises of the real sector of the economy. According to the law, the SFS Commission must send a decision to the taxpayer to register or refuse to register the TI within 5 working days after receiving its explanations and documents. However, the current legislation does not provide any consequences in the event if this term is not observed. The concept of the bill developed by...

The National Bank of Ukraine continues the policy of monetary liberalization, weakening already irrelevant anti-crisis restrictions. The next softening, fixed by the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of August 22, 2017 No. 81, came into force on August 24. This time, the changes have affected both the operations of the Ukrainian population and business, and the activities of banking institutions at the interbank level. Firstly, due to a significant increase in the stability of the foreign exchange market and liquidity of the banking system, the limit on the issuance of funds from bank accounts of individuals through cash desks and ATMs was canceled. We remind that since September 2016, there was a restriction, according to which the depositor was able to receive no more than 250 thousand UAH in the equivalent per day (it means cash in foreign currency and banking metals). It is assumed that this softening will positively affect the state of the foreign exchange market, promoting the increase of the level of customer confidence in banks. The following innovation concerns the liberalization of the approach to savings (deposit) bearer certificates and implies, first, the...

On September 7, 2017, a regulatory framework was developed for the new Dutch Corporate Governance Code, which will enter into force on January 1, 2018. The companies registered in the Netherlands will have to report the compliance with the new corporate legislation in their annual management reports. The adopted Code is based on the principle of "to observe or explain". The most notable features of it are: focus on the creation of long-term values; provisions for enhanced risk management; new rules for effective management and supervision; introduction of culture and behavior within the framework of corporate governance; simplified wage rules; new rules of relations with shareholders; clarification of the requirements for the quality of explanation. Based on the new legislation, the new corporate governance tools were developed, including the rules regulating the activities of the supervisory boards and their committees, as well as a corporate governance checklist that allows companies to assess their compliance with the current...

In order to increase the flow of debt capital to Ukraine, the National Bank has improved the regime for obtaining financing by the Ukrainian enterprises from the IFO. This is reported in a press release on the website of the bank. The adopted changes have been approved by the Resolution of the NBU Board of 07.09.2017 No. 88 "On Amending certain normative legal acts of the National Bank of Ukraine" and include two main aspects: Exemption of loan agreements in the foreign currency with the IFO from the registration in the NBU. Providing residents with the opportunity to attract loans from the IFO under the contracts that contain special conditions - when the loan currency is determined in UAH, and all transactions between the IFO and a resident borrower are conducted in foreign currency. The operations under the loan agreement will be conducted by an authorized bank in accordance with the terms of the agreement itself, and the cross-border transactions (including at the expense of the purchased foreign currency) can be carried out without registration of the National Bank. The Resolution on the Amendments entered into force on September 13, 2017. It is assumed that simplifying the...