White Papers and Industry Opinions from Cobra

On September 16, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The Act, which will be implemented gradually over the next 18 months, makes sweeping changes to the U.S. patent system....

On August 24, 2011, India’s Ministry of Communications & Information Technology issued a clarification to the privacy and data security rules (the “Privacy Rules”) that had been published in April of this year. ... The recent clarification provides that Rules 5 and 6 do not apply to companies “providing services relating to collection, storage, dealing or handling of sensitive personal data or information under contractual obligation with any legal entity located within or outside India.” In other words, the Rules apply only to Indian companies that obtain sensitive personal data directly....

The law in the United Kingdom does not deter a U.K.-based law firm or corporation from transferring sensitive data outside the European Economic Area, provided the countries to which such sensitive data is sent implement and ensure an adequate level of protection for such data....

Many corporate legal departments and law firms in the United States are experimenting with legal process outsourcing (LPO) as a means of reducing costs and increasing efficiencies while maintaining acceptable quality of service (QoS). The momentum behind the current popularity of LPO is, in part, a reaction to steadily increasing US legal costs and to the negative economic impact of our faltering global economy.