In 2023, many companies are looking to get ahead of the issues that are expected to shape the next few years. In our industry outlook, “The Trends—and Traps—That Will Shape 2023,” our lawyers provide a high-level overview of what’s in store for various global industry sectors, highlighting some of the top tech trends and global regulatory developments.

• EU Unified Patent Court: The long-awaited EU Unified Patent Court is scheduled to launch in June, which will bring a new era of patent litigation to Europe by allowing disputes in nearly two dozen EU nations to be litigated in one proceeding.
• US FTC Enforcement Act: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its enforcement work is getting more detailed about what they want from companies in the privacy and data security space. Recent examples have included employing multifactor authentication, destroying unnecessary personal data, and limiting the collection and retention of data moving forward.
• UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill: The UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament in 2023, envisages a special merger control regime that will apply to firms designated as having Strategic Market Status (SMS) by the Digital Markets Unit (DMU) within the Competition and Markets Authority. The bill also is expected to introduce certain amendments to the general merger control regime under the Enterprise Act 2002.
• Hong Kong’s Specialist Technology Companies Listing: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) issued its much-anticipated consultation paper on creating a listing regime for Specialist Technology Companies (STCs) under proposed Chapter 18C of the HKEx listing rules. The new listing regime, due to launch in the first half of 2023, eases the existing profit and trading record requirements under the listing rules for STCs, and is expected to facilitate a number of large, emerging, and innovative technology enterprises with high growth potential to list on the HKEx.

For more information on 2023 technology trends, including a look at artificial intelligence and the metaverse, please see “The Trends—and Traps—That Will Shape 2023.”