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Welcome to the MoFo Tech Blog

MoFo Tech brings together legal insights and in-depth analyses on trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry, covering fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and SaaS technologies, driverless cars, drones, FinTech, computer hardware and software, the IoT, semiconductors, and telecommunications.

April 17, 2020 - Privacy + Data Security
Law Enforcement COVID-19 Guidance: Cybercrime, Scam, and Fraud Trends
As in-house counsel, compliance, and security teams worldwide are adjusting to life amid the global pandemic, so too are criminal and nation-state cyber actors. These actors are now leveraging the pandemic, public fear, and an expanded remote-work attack surface to conduct hacking campaigns. The
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April 06, 2020 - Privacy + Data Security
HHS Suspends Penalties to Encourage Sharing of COVID-19 Data by Business Associates
On April 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that, effective immediately, it will be halting enforcement of certain HIPAA provisions in order to enable state and federal public health authorities and emergency operations
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April 03, 2020 - Telecommunications, Mergers + Acquisitions
Congratulations to Sprint and SoftBank on the Closing of the Blockbuster $59 Billion Deal with T-Mobile
By: Brandon C. Parris and Jeff Jaeckel
History in the Making Morrison & Foerster would like to congratulate our clients Sprint and SoftBank on closing the blockbuster deal between Sprint and T-Mobile, creating the “New T-Mobile” - a transaction that significantly reshapes the future of the telecom industry. Announced in 2018
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April 02, 2020 - Financings
UK Digital Services Tax, Effective from 1 April 2020
By: Alistair Maughan
With effect from 1 April 2020, the UK will start to levy a digital services tax at a rate of 2% on digital services revenues that are attributable to UK users. The UK digital services tax (“UK DST”) is intended to apply to large
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March 27, 2020 - Blockchain, Fintech
CFTC Issues Final "Actual Delivery" Interpretation for Virtual Currencies
On March 24, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued its final interpretive guidance (the “Interpretation”) concerning the meaning of “actual delivery” in the context of retail commodity transactions involving “virtual currencies.” The Interpretation provides that, in the CFTC’s view, actual delivery of
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March 24, 2020 - European Union
Hard Knocks Keep Coming for Europe’s Unified Patent Court
By: Wolfgang Schönig and Robert Grohmann
With brexited UK announcing that it will not join Europe’s long-awaited Unified Patent Court (UPC), the establishment of an efficient pan-European patent litigation system faces ever‑mounting challenges. Last Friday, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared that the German Act of Approval of the UPC
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March 23, 2020 - Artificial Intelligence, European Union
Changing the Safety and Liability Rules on AI – What is the European Commission planning?
By: Alistair Maughan, Mercedes Samavi and Dan Alam
A White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the European Commission provides insight on how governments might change product safety and liability rules to address the issues arising from AI systems. Five years ago, the European Commission (EC) established a key policy agenda designed
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March 19, 2020 - Privacy + Data Security
California Attorney General Issues 2nd Set of Modified Draft CCPA Regulations
By: Mary Race and Marian A. Waldmann Agarwal
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the California Attorney General’s office published a 2nd set of modifications to the draft regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). These still are not the Attorney General’s final CCPA regulations but rather further modified draft regulations that
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March 18, 2020 - Privacy + Data Security
Cybersecurity Tips in the Age of Remote-Work Arrangements
By: Miriam H. Wugmeister
As recent reporting highlights, cybercriminals and nation-state actors are already seizing on this moment of panic and misinformation to use traditional hacking methods to steal data — from using interactive maps with Coronavirus infection statistics to plant malware on devices to phishing scams where
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March 17, 2020 - Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Fintech
Compliance for a Digital World: BSA/AML
By: Marc-Alain Galeazzi, Vivian L. Hanson and Lee Adam Nisson
The New ABC's: Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and How Each Complements the Other BSA/AML compliance programs in the United States are often associated with high costs and inefficiencies. At the core of the problem is the lack of standardization across institutions and BSA/AML compliance processes
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