Summer is approaching, so it is diet season again. Did you know that konjac root can aid in weight loss? The official name for this edible plant from the Arum family is Glucomannan. The root grows in Japan, China, and Indonesia.
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Up to the present time, uncertainty remained in the Dutch IP-world about who has to reimburse the (full) legal costs if preliminary relief proceedings are withdrawn before the court session commences. I have conducted legal proceedings on this matter and have previously published about this subject. The Dutch Supreme Court has recently brought an end to this uncertainty: if the (former) claimant withdraws the case, he shall be burdened with the actual costs the (former) defendant has incurred.
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A new edition of our NEWS is out! An easy-to-read overview of developments in advertising law, intellectual property and food law.
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The fact that we live in a time when focus on healthy eating is perhaps bigger than ever, is more or less stating the obvious. Marketing departments are also quick in responding to this trend: many products mention why they are so good and healthy. The stage for this health battle is the supermarket, where packages and ads are fighting for your attention.
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In 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. Many thanks to our clients and colleagues for providing us with great feedback!
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Let me tell you about the birds and the bees…Zonnatura is a manufacturer of healthy (biological) products. The company is convinced that it is unnecessary to use a lot of additives to make tasty and healthy food. They show this opinion in a commercial with a singing bee flying through nature, ending up in a factory.
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The most important decision in the area of food law in 2015 is without doubt Teekanne. A German consumer organisation found it misleading that tea packaging depicted raspberries and vanilla blossoms with the logo “nur natürliche Zutaten” (only natural ingredients); naturally the consumer would expect the tea to consist of raspberries and vanilla aromas.
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At the beginning of the year, almost everything is about tissues, vitamin supplements, thermometers and snivelling colleagues. In the middle of the flu 2016 epidemic, Boehringer, the producer of the well-known cough syrup Bisolvon, sued its competitor Omega Pharma, a newcomer to the cough market. It was alleged that Omega Pharma had produced misleading advertising for its new cough product BRONCHOSTOP®.
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A patent is in principle valid for 20 years. Thereafter, the monopoly lapses and other parties can proceed with the invention. The medicine, Seretide (which is used in asthma-inhalers, “puffers” from the producer GSK) was protected by patent. GSK sold inhalers in various shades of purple and in diverse dosages.
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Shoe designer Guillaume Philibert has designed and sold shoes (called Low Tops) for quite some time. See for example the Low Top Python on the left. At first he started his business as an independent trader and from 2014 in the form of a Limited Liability Company (Filling Pieces BV). In 2015, a competing shoe store, De Schoenenfabriek, launched de Sneaker Snake, pictured to the right. Both models look remarkably similar to one another. A clear infringement of copyright and model rights, one would think.
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“The Krullaards Perfect Body Reset therapy puts you right again. The tilt of the hips with respect to the spinal column is removed with the plate.” This was the promise of Krullaards on their website. Therapy in which a patient stands in various positions on a vibrating plate in order to assist in the tilt of the hips and thus remove the difference in the length of the legs.
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In a dispute concerning two patents with respect to interactive television screens, the question arose whether the patented inventions of Smart Technologies UCL had lead to valid patent rights and whether CTouch Europe BV had infringed those rights. CTouch claimed that Smart Technologies had not clearly substantiated its infringement claims.
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Small kids are afraid of the dark, and also very afraid of the scary clown on the bus-shelter poster for the annual Halloween party in fun park Walibi. The bus-shelter was located within 170m of a day-care centre and pre-school play centre. Too close, according to the Advertising Code Committee (ACC). Obviously, the question of whether the advertisement is contrary to good taste and decency is subjective. However, in the case of advertisements in public spaces, one cannot avoid them, and thus this is judged a bit more strictly.
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After a conflict of more than 17 years, adidas finally won at the Court of Appeal Arnhem-Leeuwarden. In the meantime, the case landed on the desks of many different courts (the Court of Justice of the EU, the Supreme Court). In this case the question arose whether the 3-striped pattern could be seen as a trade mark. The CJEU held that this was the case. It is interesting to note that this case once started as summary proceedings. The Court of Appeal held that even after 17 years, adidas’ claims were still “sufficiently urgent”, since H&M still denied the infringement
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“Mmm, tasty. Mmm, also tasty.” Lidl is allowed to advertise its products in this way in its campaign “Waar kies jij voor?” (What do you choose?), so the Advertising Code Committee (ACC) decided on 7 March 2016. In the campaign, Lidl compared a number of private label products with premium brand products.
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Blendle is a type of online shop where one can buy individual articles from newspapers and magazines. From the outset of the business in 2014, Pictoright made waves with respect to their rights over the images used by Blendle in their articles. At the end of last year, 16 months later, Pictoright finally followed through and commenced interlocutory proceedings.
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In our last country report (EFFL 06/2015), we stressed that the Dutch Advertising Code Committee (ACC) is a force to reckon with in Dutch food law. Apart from applying rules on misleading and comparative advertising, the ACC also applies specific statutory food regulations, such as provisions on food information (FIC Regulation) and on nutrition and health claims (Claims Regulation).
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