Duane Morris – Fintechnically Speaking

March 7, 2023 by Duane Morris

Digital Asset Disputes: A Review of Two Recent Cases Involving Arbitration Against Consumers

There are many reasons (both commercial and legal) as to why a party or parties might elect to refer a dispute as between them to arbitration. In cross-border cases, this could be to ensure that a dispute is determined within a certain jurisdiction, language or otherwise pursuant to specific laws. In addition, and in the absence of a flagrant disregard of the relevant terms or the referral to Court for assistance, the arbitration will be confidential (which could be important).

To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

February 28, 2023 by Duane Morris

Osbourne v Persons Unknown & Ors [2023]: High Court Judgment Handed Down in Highly Anticipated Case

A highly anticipated judgment has been passed down from the High Court, allowing for service via Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on a defendant as the sole means of service. Osbourne v Persons Unknown & Ors [2023] EWHC 340 (KB) concerns Ms. Lavinia Osbourne, who sought to restrict the movement of two NFTs, which were misappropriated from her cryptoasset wallet in 2022. In the judgment, Mr Healy-Pratt (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) expanded on the comments made by Lavender J in his January 2023 judgment relating to the same case.

To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris’ Charlyn Cruz and Sam Laycock, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

June 1, 2022 by Duane Morris

Factors to Consider when Faced with a Ransomware Attack

In this digital age, the data held by an organisation can be one of its most important commodities. Threat actors (also known as malicious actors) recognise this and as such, cyberattacks have been on the rise. In particular, ransomware attacks have increased in frequency – studies have found that more than three-quarters of UK businesses were affected by ransomware in 2021. This is to be expected, not least because an organisation can still experience significant disruption, even where it is not the target of a ransomware incident (for example, it could be that an organisation further up or down the supply chain may have been affected).

So what should a company do when their data is being held captive? Should they submit to the demands of the threat actor and simply pay? Or should they refuse to back down, on moral grounds (amongst other things)?

To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris attorneys Chris Recker and Charlyn Cruz, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

May 12, 2022 by Duane Morris

Digital Asset Recovery in 2022

2021 was a blockbuster year for cryptocurrency, aided largely by the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw markets and trading vastly increase. As a result of such growth, cryptocurrency asset tracing is no longer a niche legal sphere. It is one increasingly visible within the English Courts. In January 2022, the Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos emphasised the need for all commercial and dispute resolution lawyers to understand blockchains, smart legal contracts and cryptoassets.

To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker and Jonathan Bellamy, a commercial barrister at 39 Essex Chambers, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 by Duane Morris

Recent Developments in the Cyber Universe

The developments in the cyber world are moving at a rapid pace, and at times the challenge in keeping up from a regulatory perspective is relentless.

To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partners Chris Recker and Vijay Bange, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 by Duane Morris

UK Construction: Cybercrime is the Invisible Enemy

Cyber fraud is a real and present danger across almost all industry sectors, and the construction sector is not immune as our recent article demonstrated. According to the FCA there has been a jump of 52% in incident reports and recent global conflict may possibly increase this threat.

One of the primary types of fraud affecting the construction industry is the prevalence of payment diversion fraud. It is estimated that contractors pay out around £100m per year in fake invoices. In some cases, a single instance of payment diversion fraud can amount to millions of pounds. In such cases it is easy to see how the fraud would place intolerable pressure on the cash flow of a business and in extreme instances even lead to insolvency. In an industry already under pressure through factors such as super-inflation and rising energy costs, fraud is yet another unwelcome factor which can be detrimental to cash flow on a project.

To read the full text of this post by Matthew Friedlander, Chris Recker and Sam Laycock, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

January 10, 2022 by Duane Morris

Can Blockchain and NFTs Revolutionize the Fashion Industry?

Following the worldwide disruption in retail due to COVID-19, sales of luxury goods are expected to grow as much as 25% in 2022. Much of this growth has been driven by e-commerce, with online sales totalling 23% of all luxury sales in 2020. Meanwhile, consumer sustainability demands have driven growth in luxury resale or rental markets, now worth an estimated $36 billion, while brands have expanded their reach into the brave new digital territory of the metaverse – the overlapping digital spaces in which we increasingly work, play, and consume.

Yet luxury’s digital embrace has been hampered by a concomitant rise in counterfeit goods in the physical and digital worlds. Is blockchain the solution?

To read the full text of this article co-authored by Duane Morris attorneys Cindy Yang and Kelly Bonner, please visit the Multilaw website.

November 10, 2021 by Duane Morris

NFTs and Fraud – a new frontier?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs – digital assets which are not traded on exchanges, but instead are tokens which represent the ownership of a digital file (for example, a photo or digital art)) have exploded onto the digital asset ‘scene’ over the last 18 months or so. They are generally (but not always) built on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs are bought and sold using cryptocurrency, but not traded on exchanges. Instead, they are purchased through specialist third party auction sites or sold/transferred privately.

The speed of mass NFT adoption has created significant opportunity (in the wake of the increase in value of NFTs, and also allowing content creators to monetise their services by tokenising art and music) but also exposed potential for the system to be exploited.

To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.

August 25, 2021 by Duane Morris

UK: Recent Developments on Fraud and Cryptocurrency

We are now starting to see a variety of cryptocurrency related frauds appearing before the English Court. Following the decision in AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (where an insurer was granted a proprietary injunction as part of its strategy to recover a ransomware payment which had been negotiated and paid in Bitcoin) the English Court has dealt with several cases relating to cryptocurrency.

To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.