In the realm of intellectual property and privacy rights, California stands at the forefront with robust legislation protecting individuals' right of publicity. The California Civil Code, specifically section 3344, outlines the unauthorized use of a personality's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness. This statute imposes liability on any individual or entity that exploits these attributes without prior consent, ensuring that damages, profits from the unauthorized use, and punitive damages can be sought by the injured party.

California employers should be aware of and prepare for the implementation of Senate Bill 553, Occupational Safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan. This bill continues to forge the way towards hefty employer obligations in the Golden State, requiring that employers prepare, implement and train employees on detailed violence prevention plans by July 1, 2024. Are we surprised? Sadly, no.

On March 26, the People’s Republic of China (“China”), through its Ministry of Commerce, issued a statement that it had notified the World Trade Organization (the “WTO”) of its intent to invoke the organization’s dispute settlement procedures regarding the impact of the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act’s (the “IRA”) tax incentives for new electric vehicles and other green energy-related provisions.

Following up on its Tri-Seal Compliance Note last year cracking down on third-party intermediaries’ evasion of Russia-related sanctions and export controls, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and Justice have issued a new Tri-Seal Compliance Note (“Note”) detailing the obligations of foreign-based persons to comply with U.S. sanctions and export control laws. The Note describes the applicability of U.S. sanctions and export control laws to foreign-based persons as well as significant enforcement actions against foreign persons over the last two years. The Note also details compliance considerations for foreign-based persons.

Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released a final rule to impose additional restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on persons and entities identified under 14 sanctions programs, on the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) maintained by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). 

On February 29, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued Venezuela General License (GL) 45B and, on March 1, 2024, published related Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) 1167 and updated FAQs 1137 and 1141. GL 45B and its related FAQs follow previous actions by the U.S. government to reimpose Venezuela-related sanctions (see our previous alert, “U.S. Reimposes Venezuela Sanctions Following Actions by Maduro Government”) and narrow the scope of certain transactions previously authorized under U.S. sanctions laws.

In February, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck a blow to legislators’ attempts to extend the statute of limitations applicable to child sexual abuse claims against third parties such as schools, government employers, or churches.

On July 1, 2023, a new Florida law (Senate Bill 264) went into effect, restricting foreign investment in Florida real estate from specific countries, and enacting a near-ban on property purchases by Chinese, Russian and other foreign nationals.