US Doctors to be Waived in to Israel- JPost

According to a JPost article, US doctors who have passed the USMLE need not take the Israeli medical licensing exam but will be waived in.

The exemption from the local licensing exam will be retroactive, granting a license to whoever has passed the USMLE in the past decade.

This is the first time that Israeli health authorities have accepted foreign test results for an MD license.

But someone who has taken an Israeli licensing exam and failed may not ask to take the USMLE exam and receive an exemption; he will be able, however, to resit the local exam instead.

I don't expect to see a similar rule for lawyers anytime soon. First of all, Israel seems to need more doctors so this will help ease the shortage while there is a glut of lawyers in the country. Second, the human body is the same in every country and medicine is fairly standardized whereas the legal system in the US and Israel, while similar, has many differences. On the other hand, lawyers who have passed the bar exam in one of the 50 states and has 5 years of experience need not pass the Israeli bar even if they can barely read Hebrew or know anything about the Israeli legal system. One can always hope...

US Citizens Can Register for Absentee Ballots

US citizens who want to vote in the upcoming elections in November need to get an absentee ballot. First you need to fill out some forms and apply for a ballot. Once you get the ballot and fill it out, you need to send it back- potentially electronically. So you need to mail forms to the US twice. Once to request the ballot and once to submit the ballot.

Below are links to two sites that can help guide you through the process.

http://www.fvap.gov/

Overseas Vote Foundation § Home:

And remember, vote early and vote often.

Israel Hayom | Officials: Peres possibly violated censorship laws

Israel Hayom had an interesting article regarding President Shimon Peres' recent statements opposing a unilateral Israeli attack on Iraninan nuclear facilities. The relevant part for me is the following:

Peres said no Israeli military action will be undertaken in Iran before presidential elections in the U.S. in November. According to government officials, aside from the public debate on the matter, Peres' remark was a possible severe violation of the censorship law as well as a violation of a law against exposing operational information to an enemy.

As far as I can tell, the Censorship Law refers to the Defence (Emergency) Regulations published during the British Mandate in 1945. I did not see what part of the censorship provisions the President may have violated. Most of the violations in those Regulations stem from a direct contravention of a censorship order.

However, Article 4 of the Penal Law- 1977 covers espionage and may pertain to this situation.

Delivery of information to enemy

111. If a person knowingly delivered information to or for the enemy, then he is liable to ten years imprisonment; if the information is likely to benefit the enemy, then he is liable to fifteen years imprisonment; if he thereby intended to injure national security, then he is liable to life imprisonment; if by negligence he caused to be delivered to or for the enemy information likely to benefit him, then he is liable to three years imprisonment.

Espionage

112. (a)  If a person delivered information and intended to injure national security, then he is liable to fifteen years imprisonment.

(b)  If a person obtained, collected, prepared, recorded or kept information and thereby intended to injure national security, then he is liable to ten years imprisonment.

Aggravated espionage

113. (a)  Repealed

(b)  If a person delivered secret information, without being authorized to do so and thereby intended to injure national security, then he is liable to life imprisonment.

(c)  If a person obtained, collected, prepared, recorded or kept secret information without being authorized to do so, then he is liable to seven years imprisonment; if he thereby intended to injure national security, then he is liable to fifteen years imprisonment.

(d)  (1) In this section, "secret information" – information which national security requires that it be kept secret, or information that relates to a category of subjects which the Government – by order published in Reshumot with approval by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee – declared to be secret subjects;

(2) information the contents, form, ways of keeping it, its source and the circumstances under which it was obtained indicate that national security requires it to be kept secret, unless it was proven differently.

(3) The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) shall also apply to the matter of section 113A.

(e)  It shall be a good defense for a person charged with an offense under subsection (c) that he did nothing unlawful to obtain information that constitutes secret information, and that he obtained, collected, prepared, recorded or kept it in good faith and for a reasonable purpose.

Secret information

113A. If a person passes secret information without being qualified to do so, then he shall be liable to fifteen years imprisonment.

Some of the sections of the law have an "intent" requirement which is probably lacking in this case. Regardless, I can't imagine the government pursuing criminal charges against the President- although the media would love it.

For an article about the role of the government censor in Israel, see here.

For an article about the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, see here.

Patents, Compulsory Licensing, and NPEs

The United States House of Representatives just introduced a proposed bill called the SHIELD Act which is meant to curb the amount of lawsuits brought by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs sometimes referred to as "patent trolls"), companies that buy patent rights in order to file suit against infringers of those patents. Many think that patent trolls hinder innovation by tying up developers' time and money in lawsuits, but that position is not unanimous. Most of the debate seems to focus on whether software patents should even exist. The bill, if passed, would give the judge discretion to award the defendant with the costs of his legal fees if "the court finds the claimant did not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding, and for other purposes."

My first reaction to this issue is a question. Why can't a compulsory licensing scheme like Israel's Chapter 7 of the Patent Law- 1967, solve the problem of NPEs? If an entity is not using its patents to develop new products and is just using them to sue infringers, the courts would be able to grant a license to the infringer in exchange for royalty payments to the patent owner. Presumably, this option is not favored in the US where property rights are very strong. They don't want the courts to have the power to mandate a license when it is not for government use. Instead they would apparently prefer to deter lawsuits by charging frivolous plaintiff's with defendants' costs.

For an article on compulsory licensing and NPEs, see here. And for an article on compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement and in the US and Canada, see here.

Getting a Document Notarized in Israel for Use in the US

A topic that comes up every once in a while is whether a US attorney can notarize documents here in Israel. There are many US licensed attorneys living and practicing in Israel and it would certainly be convenient if US (or foreign) citizens could get their documents notarized for use in the US in front of one of them. I have seen posts by a US lawyer advertising his notarial services here in Israel and claiming that he is authorized by NY State to notarize documents in Israel. He is not.

In the United States, each state authorizes notaries to certify signatures and administer oaths. I am not familiar with any state that allows a notary public to certify a signature outside of the state where the notary is licensed. However, a notary from state A may notarize documents for use in state B only if the documents were signed in front of the notary while in state A. If the case was otherwise, any notary public from any state could notarize documents in any other state, which is not the case.

For example the Illinois Notary Handbook states:

GEOGRAPHICAL JURISDICTION

A notary public has jurisdiction to act as such throughout the State of Illinois (Sec. 3-105). In the certificates a notary is called upon to complete, there will be a heading such as “State of Illinois, County of ___________________”. The name of the county where the signer personally appeared before the notary public should be inserted on the certificate.

In New York, the Notary Public License Law states:

§135. Powers and duties; in general; of notaries public who are attorneys at law. Every notary public duly qualified is hereby authorized and empowered within and throughout the State to administer oaths and affirmations, to take affidavits and depositions, to receive and certify acknowledgments or proof of deeds, mortgages and powers of attorney and other instruments in writing...

But even more explicitly, the Department of State's webpage on Notarial and Authentication Services of U.S. Consular Officers Abroad addresses this question:

CAN A NOTARY PUBLIC FROM THE UNITED STATES PERFORM THAT FUNCTION ABROAD? No. The commission of a notary public is limited to the jurisdiction within the particular state in the U.S. for which the commission was issued. For additional information about notaries in the United States contact the National Notary Association, a Non-Profit Educational Organization, 8236 Remmet Avenue, P.O. Box 7184, Canoga Park, CA 91304-7184, tel: 818-713-4000.

Thus a person in Israel who needs something notarized by a US notary must make an appointment at the US consulate in Jerusalem or the embassy in Tel Aviv. Another option is to get the document notarized by an Israeli attorney and then get an apostille which is the authentication certification provided for under the Hague Convention Abolishing the Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, a multilateral treaty to which the United States and Israel are parties. From the embassy website:

As an alternative, individuals requiring document notarization for use in the United States may also use Israeli notaries as follows:

Both Israel and the United States are parties to the Hague Convention abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents (October 5, 1961). The Convention calls for the use of a single signature by a designated certifying official in lieu of the chain certificate and abolishes the need for diplomatic or consular authentication. Under the Convention, the standard certification is called an apostille.

To use the Apostille, the document(s) must first be notarized by an Israeli notary. Those wishing to use a local notary for this service must contact them individually to see if they perform notaries. The notarized document must then be authenticated by the Magistrate's Court (Beith Mishpat Hashalom). Courthouses that offer this service are in Tel Aviv (03-6926211), Haifa (04-869-8000) and Jerusalem at the Ministry of Justice (02-6708511). There is no fee for the authentication.

Documents affixed with the apostille and the clerk's verification of the notary's signature using the above method, are just as acceptable in the United States as those notarized by the U.S. Embassy.

Note, however, that the above discussion pertains to documents that you need to get notarized. Official documents you receive from the Israeli government may only require an apostille without notarization. See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page to see which documents need only an apostille.

You can get an apostille for other documents by following this procedure:

If you need to issue an apostille on your Israeli documents for use outside of Israel, the procedure is as follows:

Go to an Israeli notary public with an original photo ID (i.e. passport or Teudat Zehut) and the document requiring notarization. Ask them to fill out an authorization of signature form to attach to the document that requires notarization. Each document requiring notarization needs an authorization of signature form. This includes copies of the same document. The charge is 177 NIS per document, notarization of photo ID’s costs 71 NIS. All notaries have to charge the same price for this service.

Once you have the documents notarized they will need an apostille sticker and stamp. Apostille services are offered in Magistrate Courts. In Jerusalem, the Beit Mishpat Hashalom provides apostille services. They are located in Migrash Harusim, room 229a. Public reception hours are 8:30am-13:00pm. During July and August the hours are from 9am-12:00pm.