"Island time" doesn't delay condo hotel
A client wanted to build the first international brand condominium hotel on an island nation. However, the country's existing statutes did not permit the "air space" condominium units that the client proposed for its multi-story building. Only ground-level single-story or townhouse units were allowed, and those simply weren't up to the client's or the hotel brand's standards.
Holland & Knight's Global Hospitality & Resort Team took the issue to the island's government officials. The officials said they were amenable to change. In fact, they had been trying for a decade to update their condominium and land registration statutes. But at their present pace, they were still years away from being able to pass comprehensive new condominium development and land registration laws, they explained.
Our lawyers weren't content to slow the client's plans down to "island time." They pored over the existing statutes and found a creative solution. They showed island officials how their laws could be revised with just three brief amendments – none longer than 25 words – to permit the client's proposed condo hotel.
The island's attorney general was impressed. Before the client had time to complete design work on the building, the amendments were adopted, paving the way for construction to begin.
The hotel will open next year.
That's island time, Holland & Knight style.
Technology in Paradise
The destination – exotic Guam – served as a home away from home for two years for a team of Holland & Knight litigators, paralegals and staff. Holland & Knight represented Kawasho International, a large Japanese hotel developer trying to recover damages from construction defects from the collapse of the Royal Palm Resort. The resort had failed in a large earthquake just three weeks after it opened – the only beachfront hotel and modern building on Guam to do so.
There was no courtroom on the 212-square mile Pacific island big enough to handle the largest case in Guam's history. So the parties designed and built one of the most technologically advanced courtrooms inside a warehouse complex.
The Holland & Knight team created nearly 1,000 computer graphics, a dozen physical models, and two physical tests. More than 3,000 exhibits were entered into evidence - a small portion of the half million pages of documents produced in discovery, 70 percent of which required translation from Japanese and Korean.
After 14 months of deliberation, jurors finally concluded the longest trial in Guam Superior Court history, awarding the developer $146.8 million in damages.
Extensive research and planning, high-tech tools and meticulous implementation were critical to the successful outcome in this case. It's just another example of how we do things here at Holland & Knight. Watch how we did this.
Internet Trademarks Recovered From Cybersquatters
Holland & Knight's Intellectual Property Team successfully recovered multiple Internet trademarks registered by cybersquatters for Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (CCM), a major Mexican brewery and a subsidiary of FEMSA. As the largest beverage company in Mexico and Latin America, CCM produces many fine beers known around the world, including Dos Equis, Tecate, Sol, Bohemia, and Carta Blanca.
Holland & Knight, which has represented CCM on international trademark matters for years, was asked by CCM to help recover www.dosequis.com, www.dosequisbeer.com, www.tecate.com, www.tecatebeer.com, and www.solbeer.com. All of the domain names had been registered and parked at Web sites offering links to various beer and other alcohol-related sites. Some of the cybersquatters complied quickly; others required Holland & Knight to institute UDRP proceedings with WIPO to recover the domain names before transferring the registration to the company.
The last two domain names involved cybersquatters that used "privacy shields," which presented different challenges. Ordinarily, a domain name registrant must provide contact information and the provision of false contact information is evidence of bad faith. However, domain name registrars have begun offering services that allow registrants to hide their identity. In exchange for a fee, the registrar identifies the privacy shield as the registrant, making it more difficult to obtain information about the cybersquatter. After filing the UDRP complaints, the domain name registrar provided Holland & Knight with the registrants' actual identities.
The team argued that the mere use of a privacy shield, taken together with the fame of the marks and other evidence, should be deemed bad faith. The arbitrators agreed with the Holland & Knight team, and the domain names were successfully recovered.
When Speed and Skill are Essential
The call from a distressed international shipping executive came in about 8:30 p.m. One of his oil tankers had been struck by another ship 175 miles west of Gibraltar. Oil was pouring out, and the tanker and the water around it were ablaze. Eight crew members were missing and presumed dead.
It was exactly the kind of situation for which Holland & Knight's Rapid Response Team was created. The team departed New York on an early morning Concorde flight. One attorney began the investigation aboard the tanker, having hitched a ride on a Portuguese military helicopter shuttling injured crew members ashore, while another met with officers on witness vessels before also proceeding to the tanker aboard a salvage vessel. The latter continued the casualty investigation on board, maintained oversight of the salvage operation to protect the client's interest, and assisted the exhausted and distraught tanker master with his duties in mooring his vessel to another Suezmax tanker for a ship-to-ship transfer of the vessel's 150,000 tons remaining crude oil cargo.
The firm's Rapid Response Team is equipped to mobilize a multilingual task force of experienced legal and technical specialists, appropriate to the magnitude of any marine incident. Many members of the Rapid Response Team have backgrounds in the Merchant Marine, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and one, who is a licensed ship master with command at sea experience, is also a marine salvage master. From first response to government hearings and litigation, our maritime attorneys work together to protect clients' interests at every step of the way, wherever in the world they may be needed.
We investigate and advise on all aspects:
- vessel loss or damage
- cargo loss or damage
- personal injury and death claims
- natural resources and other environmental damage