In March this year, the General Court of the European Union held that the design of Croc shoes was invalid due to a lack of novelty at the time of the application in 2004. In a nutshell, a novel design cannot have been introduced before the application for a Community Design.
Read MoreAn EU collective mark is owned by an association and may only be used by the members of that association. A well-known example of a collective mark is Fleurop. The European Court of Justice held that the essential function of an EU collective mark is not different from the function of individual EU marks. The essential function is to guarantee the collective commercial origin of the goods sold under that trade mark, not to guarantee their collective geographical origin.
Read MoreThe Sub-District Judge at the Noord-Holland Court issued an interesting decision in April 2017. A Dutch car company had placed a stock photo of a temperature gauge on its website, without permission.
Read MoreSuppliers of luxury products may ban accredited resellers from selling their products on third-party internet platforms like Amazon or Marktplaats. This was decided by the Court of Justice in the case of Coty Germany.
Read MoreIn the countries around us private persons downloading illegally already received warning letters with penalties. In the Staatscourant [Government Gazette] it was recently announced that Dutch FilmWorks has gotten permission from the Dutch Data Protection Authority to collect IP-addresses from private persons who download their films and series illegally.
Read MoreEsprit’s design department had clearly forgotten that the whole point about a design department is that it designs … An identical copy of a Scoth & Soda fleece jacket left Esprit’s drawing table and appeared on the European market. A copyright infringement – as the District Court unsurprisingly held in The Hague.
Read MoreRecognise this situation? A family business has been running for a while under the family name. One of the sons then starts a similar business elsewhere on his own account, again using the family name in one way or another. So what should happen?
Read MoreA man living in Bodegraven-Reeuwijk had been at loggerheads with his municipality for years. For convenience, let's call him Pete; we don't know his real name. Pete was angry with, amongst others, the mayor of the Bodegraven-Reeuwijk municipality because of changes to a zoning plan.
Read MoreIn 2015 Chiever, a law firm specialising in trademark protection, filed The Night Watch as a figurative mark with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP). This had been prompted by a BOIP marketing campaign.
Read MoreThere's been a dispute about fries - French fries to be precise. J.R. Simplot Company holds a design registration for various twisted shapes. McCain Foods was about to start selling 'Rustic Twist' potatoes, which are not much different to look at. Design infringement or not?
Read MoreOn 1 July 2017 the Dutch act dealing with payment terms of maximum sixty days for large companies (Wet uiterste betaaltermijnen van zestig dagen voor grote ondernemingen) has entered into force.
Read MoreThe Proplamp "Crumplelamp" has been marketed by a design duo in the Netherlands since the beginning of 2014. The lamp comes in various sizes and the price ranges from € 299 to € 1,199. Ikea has been selling the Krusning lamp (bottom left) since the end of 2014. The Krusning costs only € 14.95, but you do have to “crumple it up” yourself.
Read MoreSince the entry into force of the European Enforcement Directive (10 years ago) the full legal costs of civil enforcement proceedings in the Netherlands have usually been reimbursed: in principle, the party that wins the case can claim all its legal costs.
Read MoreFor years, Gaos B.V. has owned the domain name < ok.nl >: a beautifully pithy domain name which it hopes to put to good use in the future. For example, a positive website full of descriptions of beautiful things: there is already so much negativity in the world.
Read MoreIn April the most important rankings for lawyers and law firms were published: Chambers and Legal 500. Chambers and Legal 500 research the legal market in detail and gauge the opinions of clients and colleagues. Only the best lawyers and firms are listed. Just like in previous years Hoogenraad & Haak and our lawyers do very well in the rankings.
Read MoreForever findable on Google? On Friday 24th of February 2017 the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that a person’s privacy interest outweighs the economic interest of the operator of a search engine and the interest of internet users in having access to information: in principle search engines have to heed the request for the ‘right to be forgotten’. Only in special circumstances this could be different.
Read MoreSince Monday I am taking care of Tunahan Kuzu, the party leader of the Dutch political party “Denk”. That is: I take care of him digitally, via the (Tamagotchi-inspired) Kamergotchi app, which was created by the Dutch satirical TV show “Zondag met Lubach”. I proudly inform you that Kuzu is doing rather well. I regularly give him food, love and fresh ideas.
Read MoreOn October 26 2016 the District Court of The Hague rendered its judgment in a case brought by Dr Ing HCF Porsche Aktiengesellschaft against an unnamed Dutch individual.
Read MoreBiscuits and sweets producers Mondelez and Nestlé can’t seem to stop litigating over the shape mark of the KIT KAT candy bar. Previously, the CJEU explained that, when the shape of a chocolate bar conformed to a technical function or followed from the nature of the bar, the shape could not be regarded as a shape mark.
Read MoreTempels holds a patent on an indent, or nick, in zwiebacks, so that they can be removed from their tube-like packaging without breaking.
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