Who doesn't know them, Capri Sun’s iconic standing bags. Since 1969, Capri Sun has been packaging its fruit juices in flexible, aluminium-coloured standing bags. The stand-up bag has many advantages. The material ensures that the fruit juice remains cooled for a long time, the shape makes it easy to carry and prevents spillage. The only disadvantage is that the high functionality of the stand-up bag is precisely a dealbreaker for trademark protection.
Read MoreMedical device advertisements often contain claims about the functioning of the product. The television commercial for A. Vogel Extra Intensive Eye Drops: "Softens your dry eyes. A. Vogel eye drops provides long-lasting wetting and relief." Is it allowed to make that claim?
Read MoreThe September edition of our quarterly Advertising | IP | Food Law news is out! Curious what the specialists at Hoogenraad & Haak have noticed in the world of advertising, intellectual property and food law? Then do read on. Please feel free to send us feedback – much appreciated! You can find our quarterly update here.
Read MoreWhere should the packaging say that a product tastes like the depicted fruit? For a moment it seemed that taste could no longer be mentioned at all! The Advertising Code Committee had - unintentionally - clumsily written this down in the Optimel Vanilla custard case, filed by Foodwatch.
Read MoreEvery parent knows the situation: your child wants to buy certain cookies, with the Minions pictured on the packaging, or Dora The Explorer. The Stop Unhealthy Food Marketing to Kids Coalition could not stand it any longer and it is about to change. For a while, there has been regulations on advertising for foodstuffs: they may not be targeted at children of twelve years and younger.
Read MoreMathijs Peijnenburg was sworn in as a lawyer on 13 February 2019 at the District Court of Amsterdam and will continue his career as an associate at our firm. After a successful student internship, Mathijs Peijnenburg continued to work as a paralegal at Hoogenraad & Haak.
Read MoreWhen you sit in a restaurant, you're surrounded by copyright protected works: the art on the walls, the restaurant's logo on the menu and in some cases even the dining tables and chairs. But what's the situation with copyright protection of the most important thing in that restaurant - the flavour of the food and drink? This question has led to a lot of scratching of heads in IP land recently. The EU Court of Justice made its pronouncement on the matter on 13 November: flavour is not protected by copyright.
Read MoreDo you remember them? The blue and green tick marks on food packaging. These symbols have been in use since 2006 to help consumers choose healthier products. The party was over after 10 years: the tick marks were about to disappear gradually from the shelves. Products can no longer be produced with the tick marks after 18 October of this year.
Read MoreFollowing a successful student internship at our office, Mathijs Peijnenburg has stayed on as a legal assistant with Hoogenraad & Haak. He has quickly made himself indispensable in that position. Mathijs will continue his career as an advocaat with our firm from 2019. He will be working across the full range of our practice areas. Mathijs studied in England, the Netherlands and Australia. He worked for a number of law firms while he was studying and also gave courses in pleading at Leiden University. In his spare time, Mathijs enjoys turning out on the hockey field.
Read MoreIn the Netherlands, it is prohibited to advertise medicines to the general public. The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport enforces strictly and imposes fines up to EUR 450.000 for each violation. A recent judgement proves that this fine cannot only be imposed on the manufacturer, but also on the PR agency that acts in the interests of the manufacturer. Agencies beware!
Read MoreIn a television commercial, a cool teenager confides that he is extremely tense about his final exams. Luckily, he has Original Clear Mind, ‘which helps me concentrate better and improves my academic performance’. The applicant considered touting this product to minors to be a grave mistake. The applicant was confusing ordinary CBD oil with the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis: THC.
Read MoreA video produced by Servero, an apple sauce producer, was posted on YouTube. A presenter asks passersby to take part in a taste test. Sample A is Servero’s 100% apple sauce without added sugar. Sample B is a ‘random’ leading brand with a purple lid that contains ‘no less than seven cubes of sugar’. Eight of the ten participants preferred the Servero 100% apple sauce. According to competitor HAK, it is abundantly clear that Sample B is its own HAK apple sauce.
Read MoreThe Witte Wieven (“Women in White”)…are mythical creatures. They are thought to be the spirits of wise female herbalists that remained on earth. They appear in epic stories, sometimes to help, sometimes to hinder. … the Witte Wieven are often referred to in connection with witches and ghosts. This is what the English version of Wikipedia has to say about ‘witte wieven’.
Read MoreWhat ingredients do you think are in the product below on the left? No, don’t keep reading, I really want your opinion. Go on. I can wait. You can also share your thoughts with me by email. Done? The applicant felt he had been misled. He thought that the product only contained orange juice and so felt cheated when the rest of the packaging revealed that the product contained 33% water. Misleading!
Read MoreWine grower, writer, and television presenter Ilja Gort is the co-founder and owner of the Chateau de la Garde winery. One of the winery’s best-known and best-selling wines is ‘La Tulipe’, which graces the shelves of Albert Heijn supermarkets. Chateau de la Garde has multiple registrations for the word mark LA TULIPE. Last summer, De la Garde successfully defended its trademark against a Hema brand wine bearing a tulip on the label.
Read MoreThe Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit, NVWA) has just recently published its annual plan, providing an interesting look behind the scenes. The NVWA lists as its core values: reliability, independence, transparency, and professionalism. Stemming from these is its clarification about where its priorities lie.
Read MoreAdvocate General Wathelet has advised against copyright protection of the taste of foodstuffs. The key consideration is in nr. 60.
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