In-House Insights with Francesca Gori of Accenture Legal

December 15, 2022
Cultivating purpose-driven values in-house to better serve clients and communities 1. WHAT GENERAL TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING EMERGE IN THE WORK OF ACCENTURE AND YOUR LEGAL TEAM ACROSS GROWTH MARKETS, OR BELIEVE WILL IN THE NEAR FUTURE? Every business is a digital business, with technology changing how we live, work and build relationships; it is a powerful enabler. The pandemic accelerated this change, including how we provide legal services. With a team of around 3,000 people worldwide, Accenture Legal is one of the biggest in-house legal teams globally – this means we have both the capacity and imperative to lead the change in the legal industry. One area we have focused on that I see being a key area of impact for the wider industry is the use of Artificial Intelligence to gain insights from millions of contracts and chatbots to create a seamless user experience. “Every business is a digital business, with technology changing how we live, work and build relationships; it is a powerful enabler.” This approach, as well as the use of big data for compliance and smart, customized dashboards to facilitate strategic reviews, allows our people to be at their best, focus on the right priorities and decrease repetitive work. 2. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CULTURE AND VALUES OF ACCENTURE AND HOW THESE MAY BE BOTH SHAPED BY AND SHAPE THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH YOU WORK? The team is helping to build a diverse pipeline and increase representation by establishing a legal internship program for female nationals of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. One of our Saudi legal interns subsequently secured an...

International Arbitration and the Circle of Control

November 28, 2022
A Look at the psychological benefits of arbitration and the status of arbitration in Thailand There are often many reasons cited as to why international arbitration should be the preferred method of dispute resolution for parties: it can be quicker, cheaper, the process is private, the award is final, and the parties have more autonomy over the process. Whilst some of these factors are debatable (especially in highly complex commercial cases), the fact that parties to an arbitration can have more autonomy than in traditional court litigation is usually less controversial. Party autonomy in arbitration is often a significant factor that persuades contractual parties to consider arbitration over other methods of dispute resolution. This is not surprising, as the need to have control and certainty is an innate human desire that often brings us security and peace. Our need for control and certainty There is no doubt that Covid has had a detrimental effect on the economy and many businesses. Most people would also agree that it has taken a significant toll on people’s mental health. Social distancing forced people to keep a distance and lose close contact with friends and colleagues. For some people, it meant a loss of social contact and socialising all together, due to fear of catching the virus if they stepped out of the safety of their homes. Lockdowns and school closures meant that more families were stuck at home, glued to their computers for work or online school and having to navigate the lack of privacy and personal space in their own homes. For working parents, the stress of juggling work from home, not...

Outcome Related Fee Structure Arrangement for Arbitration in Hong Kong

November 24, 2022
A win-win solution for legal practitioners and clients 1. Introduction 1.1 Why introduce ORFSA in Hong Kong? Until recently, Solicitors in Hong Kong were prohibited from charging outcome related fees in arbitration.  On 17 December 2020, the Outcome Related Fee Structures for Arbitration Sub-committee of the Law Reform Commission (Sub-committee) published a consultation paper proposing changes to the law in Hong Kong to enable lawyers to use Outcome Related Fee Structures (ORFS) for arbitration in Hong Kong and elsewhere, with the objective of enabling Hong Kong to compete on a level playing field with other leading arbitral seats where some form of ORFS is permitted, thereby maintaining Hong Kong’s status as one of the World’s premier arbitration venues. On 15 December 2021, the Law Reform Commission (Commission) released a report on ORFS for Arbitration recommending that Hong Kong law be amended by lifting the prohibition on the use of Outcome Related Fee Structure Agreements (ORFSA)1 for arbitration taking place in and outside Hong Kong and elsewhere.  The Sub-committee believed that such fee arrangements were attractive to clients for many reasons, such as financial management, access to justice and a general idea that lawyers in Hong Kong would be willing to share the risk inherent in arbitrating.  Moreover, after Hong’ Kong’s close competitors, London and Singapore, implemented their own version of ORFSA, it was expected that Hong Kong to do the same.  1.2 Introducing ORFSA in Hong Kong2 On 30 March 2022, following the Commission’s recommendation, the Arbitration and Legal Practitioners Legislation (Outcome Related Fee Structures for Arbitration) (Amendment) Bill was introduced by the Legislative Council. ORFSA was incorporated into Hong Kong’s...

Board Portal Communications vs. Email and PDFs

November 24, 2022
Security is the obvious and primary concern when using email or PDFs to disseminate sensitive board information (for an in-depth discussion, see our e-book on email security). But there are other worrisome consequences that arise when resorting to email and PDFs for board communications. All of which hinder, sometimes to a significant degree, the ability of the board to adequately prepare, remain engaged, and conduct productive board meetings.  In this post, we discuss some of the pitfalls of using email and PDFs for board communications, and highlight how board portals can address these. Dangers, Risks, and Challenges of Using Email and PDFs in the boardroom A.) LACK OF SECURITY AND PRIVACY: AN ONGOING CONCERN For purposes of discussion, we can broadly define security as restrictive, controlled access to systems, processes or data. Privacy, on the other hand, has more to do with owning and controlling data.  Security Implications of Email Email inboxes have always been prone to hacking. Since boards possess mission-critical and sensitive organisational data, they have become prime targets for cybercrimes — such as whaling. Board members are inadvertently tasked with ensuring that they have adequate digital security measures in place to limit their exposure to these vulnerabilities.  Privacy Implications of Email While most personal email providers pride themselves on being secure, there can be questions around data ownership and data governance. After all, information is stored in servers under another party’s control. In this light, data privacy policies are always worth a second look, especially when it comes to data collection, tracking, transparency, third-party access and determining exactly how information is used. THE ADVANTAGE OF BOARD...

The Greater China IP Updates – November 2022

November 17, 2022
Revisions to the Examination Guidelines on Distinctiveness of Trademarks Took Place in September in Taiwan To enhance the examination principles for distinctiveness of various types of trademarks, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has promulgated revisions to the Examination Guidelines on Distinctiveness of Trademarks.  TIPO has made the revisions to ensure that the basis on which distinction is determined for trademarks aligns with current market transactions.  The main revisions are as follows: More details have been added to the different composition patterns of foreign alphabets. Reference examples for determining whether descriptions are designed and distinctive have been provided. Assessment criteria and examples for alphanumeric combinations and numbers have been added. Examples of popular graphics, purely informational graphics, and commercial design graphics have been added. Criteria for country names, geographical images, and geographical names used in descriptions of product origin as well as misleading use or misrepresentation have been added. Assessment criteria and reference examples for names and portraits of well-known public figures who are recently deceased have been provided. Revised criteria for slogans, common words, new terms and idioms have been added. Trademark graphics which include the full name of the company or domain names are considered strictly informational in order to prevent affecting the certainty of the scope of trademark rights and the function of correctly indicating the source of the product or service in the event that trademark rights are transferred or there is a change of name after registration. Taiwan’s Supreme Administrative Court Affirms Artificial Intelligence Inventions Not Patentable The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Economic Affairs has rejected several applications invented by AI. ...

The Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand (ERC) Sets Out to Promote Low-Carbon Economy with New Regulations on the Procurement of Renewable Energy

November 9, 2022
The world’s energy shortage crisis immensely affects the fluctuation of prices of natural gas and fuel, as well as the global economy. Many leading countries have encouraged and promoted the development and use of clean and renewable energy for sustainability. Thailand is well aware of the global trend and the rise in the country’s energy cost, so the Thai government, in collaboration with the relevant public authorities has set out one of the country’s goals to be a low-carbon economy with net-zero carbon emissions. As a result, the Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand (ERC) has published the Regulation re: Procurement of Electricity from Renewable Energy under Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for the year 2022 – 2030, effective on 28 September 2022 (the “Regulation”), and the Announcements of the Invitation to Purchase the Renewable Energy under the FiT for all promoted renewables, i.e., Biogas (wastewater/ solid waste), wind, ground-mounted solar, and ground-mounted solar with battery energy storage system (BESS), effective on 1 October 2022 (the “Announcements”). The key elements of the Regulation to promote the procurement of renewable energy are as follows: Renewable Energy Power Producer Power Purchase Agreement Form Proposed Electricity to be sold FiT rate (THB per Unit) Biogas (wastewater/ solid waste)   Remark: fossil fuel is not allowed, except only at the commencement stage of the power plant operation. ·     Small Power Producer (SPP)* ·     Very Small Power Producer (VSPP)** Non-Firm Not exceeding 90 MW THB 2.0724*** (for 20 years) Wind THB 3.1014*** (for 25 years) Ground-mounted Solar THB 2.1679*** (for 25 years) Ground-mounted Solar with BESS ·     Small Power Producer (SPP)* Partial Firm More than 10 MW...