Portugal has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (Agreement) signed in Brussels on 19 February 2013, by Parliament Resolution no. 108/2015.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) shall have exclusive competence for the settlement of disputes relating to European patents and European patents with unitary effect. To this effect, the UPC is competent to:
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Actions for actual or threatened infringements of patents;
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Actions for declarations of non-infringement of patents;
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Actions for revocation of patents; and
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Granting injunctions against an alleged infringer to prevent, forbid or cease alleged infringements.
The UPC comprises (i) a court of first instance which has a central division with seat in Paris, and sections in London and Munich, as well as regional and local divisions to be established and (ii) a Court of Appeals with seat in Luxembourg. UPC judges are both legally qualified judges and technically qualified judges, the latter having a university degree and proven expertise in certain fields of technology.
Parties may be represented by lawyers or by European Patent Attorneys. The following entities are entitled to bring actions before the UPC:
(a) The patent proprietor;
(b) The holder of an exclusive license in respect of a patent, under the licensing agreement;
(c) The holder of a non-exclusive license, under the licensing agreement; and
(d) Any other natural or legal person, or any body entitled to bring actions, who is concerned by a patent or is affected by a decision of the European Patent Office.
The patent proprietor is always entitled to intervene in actions brought by a license holder.
Proceedings in the UPC will be the language of the local or regional division in which the action is brought or the language in which the patent was granted.
With the entry into force of the Agreement, Lisbon and Ljubljana will receive Patent Arbitration and Mediation Centers. Portugal is still awaiting the decision on the possible establishment of a local division of the Court of First Instance in the country.
Law No. 63/2015 published on 30 June 2015 amends previous Golden Visa regulations to include a new broad concept of "investment activity" that allows the investor to choose between the following investment alternatives to obtain a Golden Visa:
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Creation of at least 10 jobs;
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Acquisition of real estate, whose construction has been completed for at least 30 years or located in an urban recovery area and carry out rehabilitation works of real estate acquired in the overall amount of €350,000.00 or higher;
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Transfer of capital in the amount of no less than €350,000.00, to be applied in research activities;
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Transfer of funds in the amount of no less than €250,000.00, to be applied in investment or supporting artistic production, recovery or maintenance of national cultural heritage; and
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Transfer of funds in the amount of no less than €500,000.00, for the purchase of a unit investment trust or venture capital geared to the capitalization of small and medium enterprises.
The minimum investment amounts are reduced by 20% when activities are carried out in areas with less than 100 inhabitants per Km² or GDP per capita below 75% of the national average (i.e. the interior of Portugal).
Foreigners who received residence permits for college education and wish after completing their studies to find work in accordance with their qualifications in Portugal may do for a one year period may temporary residence permit without a new visa.
Applications for a concession of a residence permit and for renovating a residence permit are now decided in 90 and 60 days, respectively.
Law No. 63/2015 of 30 June enters into force on 1 July 2015.
In 2014, the Government amended the rules on financial companies set out in Decree-Law 298/92, of 31 December 1992 (Banking Law) and created a new type of financial company - the credit financial companies.
Decree-Law 100/2015, of 2 June 2015, approved the legal framework applicable to credit financial companies and adapted the legal framework applicable to the other financial companies, taking into account the amendments to the Portuguese Companies Code approved in 2015.
Credit financial companies may carry out any activities that are permitted to banks, save for:
(a) Receiving deposits or other repayable funds from the public;
(b) Payment services; and
(c) Electronic money services.
The registered name of credit financial companies must contain the wording «sociedade financeiras de crédito».
Credit financial companies must assume the form of a public limited company (sociedade anónima). However, they will not be subject to the minimum equity/net assets ratio of 35% applicable to the issue of bonds by public limited liability companies, being authorised to issue bonds of any kind up to four times their shareholder's equity.
Pursuant to its legal framework, credit financial companies will also be authorised to issue commercial paper.
The legal frameworks of the other financial companies were also amended in order to extend the requirements regarding legal form and the issue of bonds to these companies, including:
(a) Investment companies;
(b) Leasing companies;
(c) Factoring companies; and
(d) Mutual guarantee companies.
Decree-Law 100/2015, of 2 June 2015, enters into force on 7 June 2015.
Today Macedo Vitorino refreshes its image and launches a new responsive website. The changes to Macedo Vitorino' brand reflect firm's core values: transparency, integrity and proximity.
The revitalization and transformation of the brand also included the development of a new responsive website. The new website is now adapted to tablets and smartphones, which are today among the preferred means of access to the Internet, with links to the social networks where the firm has a presence. The new website comes with improved navigation features, ease of access and more information about the firm and legal matters of interest to our clients, prospective clients, students and foreign lawyers looking for information on Portuguese law matters.
The Portuguese Government approved the new tender specifications for the privatisation of TAP, the Portuguese flagship airline company, by means of direct sale. Although the tender comprises only 61% of TAP shares, the Portuguese State will hold a put option for two years regarding the remaining stake.
Following a failed attempt to privatise the Portuguese flagship airline company, TAP - Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, S.A. (TAP SA), in 2014, the Government relaunched the privatisation by Decree-Law no. 181-A/2014, of 24 of December 2014, which approved a new privation procedure, including:
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A direct sale of up to 61% of the share capital of the holding company, TAP SGPS, S.A. (TAP); and
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An offer of up to 5% of the TAP shares to TAP employees.
Under the new privatisation procedure the Portuguese State will hold a put option in respect of the remaining shares held by it for a period of two years after the privatisation.
Following the agreement reached with the TAP trade unions, which prevented strikes in the Christmas season, the Government has approved the new tender specifications for the privatisation of TAP and the conditions of the offer of the shares to TAP employees under Council of Ministers Resolution no. 4-A/2015, of 20 January 2015.
According to the new privatisation tender specifications, the privatisation will be opened to national and international investors, which may bid individually or in consortia. The selection of the winning bid will include, among other criteria, the following:
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Improvement of TAP's economic and financial structure;
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Share purchase price;
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Capacity to assure TAP's public services obligations; and
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Technical and management expertise in the air transportation sector.
The binding offer must include a financial binding offer, a technical binding offer and documentation and legal and economic information regarding the bidder.
The financial binding offer must include:
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Bid stating the number of shares the bidder undertakes to buy and the proposed price;
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Proposed capitalisation plan for TAP and TAP SA; and
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Strategy to ensure compliance with TAP SA's legal framework and its status as EU airline operator.
The shares will be subject to a lock-up period of five years. After that period the Portuguese State will have a right of first refusal in any resale of TAP shares acquired by the winning bidder. In general, the new privatisation conditions are more favourable to potential investors and the procedure is expected to be more flexible, which could attract more bidders.
The Portuguese Government has put in place a Fund for the Systemic Sustainability of the Energy Sector aiming at reducing the Portuguese tariff deficit. This deficit is the result of a long term policy of power utilities support through complex compensation schemes (including but not limited to those known as CMEC) payable by consumers.
Energy utilities will now be called to contribute with an extraordinary contribution (a new tax already foreseen in the 2014 Budget Law) that will be used to partially replace the CMEC and to acquire tariff credits from energy companies.
The Portuguese Government approved the specifications of the public tender for the reprivatisation of Empresa Geral de Fomento, S.A. (EGF), the waste management unit of the State-owned water and waste group Águas de Portugal.
The tender specifications set out the sale of 95% of the share capital of EGF (the remaining 5% are reserved to EGF's employees) and allow the submission of tenders by national and foreign investors, individually or in consortia, that fulfil certain technical, management, suitability and financial requirements.
We have several positions to fill and are currently looking for trainees, junior associates and associates.
Desired skills and experience:
- Proficiency in English
- Pro-active
- Responsible
- Organized
- Detail oriented
- Immediate availability
To apply please follow the link below:
http://www.macedovitorino.com/pt/recrutamento/candidatura-a-estagios/
Or send us an email with your Curriculum Vitae:
estagios@macedovitorino.com
Good luck!
The Lisbon Court of Appeal confirmed the decisions of the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Commercial Court and condemned the Bar Association of Chartered Accountants (Ordem dos Técnicos Oficiais de Contas - "OTOC") to pay fine in the amount of 90,000 euros for anticompetitive practices on the market of compulsory training for Chartered Accountants.
The OTOC was condemned for adopting a training credits regulation that almost exclusively reserved to the OTOC the training of its members. The Lisbon Court of Appeal considered that this regulation was a decision of an association of undertakings prohibited by national and European competition laws, as it eliminates competition on the market to the detriment of third training providers.
The Government approved the final terms of the first stage of the privatisation procedure of the Portuguese postal operator, CTT - Correios de Portugal, S.A. (CTT), which will include the sale of up 70% of the share capital owned by Parpública - Participações Públicas, S.G.P.S., S.A. (Parpública) through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and a direct institutional sale.
Pursuant to Resolution 72-B/2013, of 18 November 2013, in the IPO, which started on 19 November 2013 and will end on 2 December 2013, Parpública will sell 21,000,000 shares, of which 5,250,000 shares are reserved to CTT group employees. The price of the shares placed in the IPO will be set between € 4.10 and € 5.52, with employees benefiting from a 5% discount. In the direct institutional sale, Parpública will sell 84,000,000 shares to the following banking institutions: Caixa - Banco de Investimento, S.A., J.P. Morgan Securities PLC, Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria, S.A. e Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento, S.A.. The price per share may be higher (but not lower) than the price set out in the IPO.
The Prospectus of the IPO provides that CTT will distribute 90% of its net profit as dividends.