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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.

May 20, 2020 - Blockchain
Understanding Blockchain - Blockchain and Securities Law - Part 4
In this episode of “Understanding Blockchain,” Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Gault-Brown and Dario de Martino discuss if securities laws apply to all cryptocurrencies in the same way. This ongoing series is dedicated to providing an overall understanding of blockchain technology and how companies can
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May 20, 2020 - Blockchain
Understanding Blockchain - Blockchain and Securities Law - Part 3
In this episode of “Understanding Blockchain,” Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Gault-Brown and Dario de Martino discuss how securities laws apply to cryptocurrencies. This ongoing series is dedicated to providing an overall understanding of blockchain technology and how companies can use it to share, store,
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May 13, 2020 - Software, Cloud Services + SaaS
Service-Level Agreement Basics
By: Stephanie Lynn Sharron
Given the broad use and relative importance of service-level agreements (SLAs) in a variety of contexts, in this blog post, we provide an overview of the basics of SLAs and what they should address. An SLA is an important part of any contract with
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May 01, 2020 - Intellectual Property
Landmark Trademark Protection Case Before Supreme Court
By: Muzamil Huq
This Monday, May 4, 2020, the United States Supreme Court will hear its first-ever telephonic oral arguments in a trademark case regarding the nature of the boundary between “descriptive” and “generic” terms. While the question presented is narrow—whether the addition of a generic top-level
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April 17, 2020 - Privacy + Data Security
Law Enforcement COVID-19 Guidance: Cybercrime, Scam, and Fraud Trends
By: Michael Burshteyn
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 and Kirsten Banks
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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