Johnson & Johnson case

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Johnson & Johnson, a company known for its baby products, in recent years – but the most well-known one involves 22 women who alleged that their ovarian cancers have been caused by the baby powder they had been using. After the appeal, by the end of which the amount of money the company had to pay those women was reduced from 4.7 billion to 2.1 billion, Johnson & Johnson took legal steps to present the case before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has decided not to consider their case, however, which resulted in leaving in place the last verdict of the Missouri appeals-court.

The link between the illness and the product was supposed to be based on the fact that Johnson & Johnson baby powders contained talc. Talc is oftentimes found in close proximity to asbestos, which is carcinogenic, and in the past the talc has been contaminated with asbestos. It is also worth mentioning, that talk on itself is dangerous while inhaled in large doses but the studies aren’t clear on whether or not it’s carcinogenic on itself.

Although Johnson & Johnson denies that their products are dangerous to health, they will no longer be selling the baby powder containing talc in the US and Canada, focusing instead on the corn-starch-based alternative.

Polish Regulations

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In the previous article we wrote about EU 5^th AML Directive (2018/843). [1] Currently, after 6 months of passing the 5^th AML Directive, the new 6^th AML Directive was prepared and passed by the European Parliament and European Council. The new directive (EU 2018/1673) was passed on 23 October 2018 and came into legal effect on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the official journal of the European Union. In respect of the Directive provisions the Member States shall implement the 6AMLD by 3 December 2020 and immediately inform the Commission thereof.

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On September 13 and 14, 2021, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI took part in two webinars, organised by Idea Growth (https://ideagrowth.org/), concerning the broadly understood i-gaming and sports betting, which are one of the core specializations of technology sector of KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI. Each of the webinars had the form of a short 1-hour condensed session conducted by the experts of the above-mentioned fields.

On Monday, September 13, 2021, the first webinar addressed “the imperative of advertising to acquire customers while respecting various state laws and prioritizing responsible gaming practices.”

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Technology transfer agreements as well as investment agreements are often accompanied by source code escrow agreements used to secure the IP rights to the software.

Source code

The key of programs and software is the source code. It is the fundamental component of a computer program that is created by a programmer.  The source code should be written using a human-readable programming language – usually plain text. The main goal of it is to set exact rules and specifications for the computer that can be translated into the machine’s language.

What is source code escrow?

Sometimes it happens that even if special software tailored to one’s needs is created by a professional company, problems may arise. The investor needs to make every effort to protect company in the event that the contractor’s company ceases to exist, for example because of its bankruptcy or liquidation. In such cases, the solution to secure the transfer of ownership of the source code is to put in place source code escrow agreement. This is a service that helps protect all parties involved in a software licence by having a neutral, independent third party escrow agent hold the source code. 

Main principles of source code escrow

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British auction house Christie’s is where spectacular auctions take place. Transactions that are carried out there are mentioned all over the world. Many Christie’s auctions attract interest due to the fact that they may be controversial, such as sale of an image created by artificial intelligence or the work entitled “Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)” by Pablo Picasso. Recently Christie’s announced that another innovative auction is planned.

Namely its October “Post-War to Present” auction will include the sale of 31 non-fungible tokens that are considered to be some of the oldest on the Ethereum blockchain. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. This will be the first ever live auction with bidding conducted entirely in Ether. The NFTs that Christie’s is offering in the fall have distinct legacies of their own. They are also estimated to sell for between 250 and 350 ETH, which shakes out to approximately between $870,000 and $1.3 million. These NFTs are Curio Cards that were made in May 2017, so even earlier than CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties.  

Aside from the Curio Cards NFTs, Christie’s will be auctioning NFTs from the Art Blocks curated collection. Modern artists would have possibility to choose their favourite post-war artworks and pay for them in Ethereum. The tokens are representing real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, videos and other seemingly mundane everyday signifiers. Works by renowned artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell and Grace Hartigan will be part of the auction alongside works by Wayne Thiebaud.

The event definitely created a buzz among art enthusiasts.  NFTs are highly valued digital assets which uses blockchain to record the ownership status of the aforementioned items. After the transaction only the buyer of an NFT has the official of being its owner. However anyone can still view the item.

Recently, several large cryptocurrency-based auctions have brought in huge amounts of money in the art world. The upcoming “Post-War to Present” auction is sure to create a buzz among currency enthusiasts. One thing we can be sure of – a digital revolution is coming, and the world of cryptocurrencies will surprise us more than once.

Sources:

Christie’s Is Now Accepting Ether for Ethereum’s Earliest NFTs | Observer

Christie’s to Hold Auction of Some of the Oldest NFT Art — With Live Bids in ETH | Technology News (ndtv.com)

Christie’s na Twitterze: „Friday, 1 October at 9:30AM EDT, Christie’s New York presents Post-War to Present: The NFTs. This will be the first ever live auction with bidding conducted entirely in Ether. Featuring Curio Cards and Art Blocks Curated. https://t.co/Ydpr1zsr5Z https://t.co/zUaoY0pEXT” / Twitter

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