cases

Copyright and slavish imitation. Ex-distributor of plaintiff brought her own designed baby-sleeping wrap on the market. According to the plaintiff, it violated the copyrights vested in the design of its sleep wrap and would constitute also a slavish imitation. The court rejected all claims. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Copyright. An internet hosting provider demanded immediate strike of a TV commercial from telecom provider Online. Online’s TV commercial allegedly resembled the plaintiff’s and infringed on the plaintiff’s copyrights. The contrary was successfully argued. All claims were rejected.  Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Infringing trademark use by retailer. A webshop specialised in Talens products used Talensshop.nl as its trade name, brand and domain name. The claimed cessation of that use due to trademark and trade name infringement was granted. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Ambush marketing, trade mark infringement and parody. Just before the start of the EURO2000 European Football Championship, Daewoo started its TV commercial with the slogan “Daewoo sponsors 2000Euro”. UEFA claimed an injunctive relief on the basis of its trademark rights to its trademark EURO2000. UEFA’s claims were rejected in summary proceedings. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Design and copyright infringement, ex parte order. Motoport, manufacturer of motorcycle clothing, had designed and introduced a new motorcycle safety vest. Shortly afterwards it was confronted with a look-a-like safety vest from one of its competitors. On behalf of Motoport, an ex parte cease and desist court order was filed, which the court awarded the same day.  Read the court order in Dutch here.

Unlawful publication and copyright. In summary proceedings, the plaintiff demanded a ban on publication of an edition of the magazine LOCUS from PROPERTYNL, on the grounds that infographics therein had been used without permission and that its use constituted a copyright infringement. The court ruled that implicit consent had been given and all claims were rejected.  Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Commodities law, food and health claims, and misleading advertising. San Carlo opposed the images of an olive oil jug and olives on the packaging of Smiths’ (Lays) Mediterraneanas chips and and sought an order that Smiths (Lays) would refrain from using the packaging and publish a rectification. With reference to market research and the Darbo-judgment of the EC Court of Justice, it was successfully argued that there was no misrepresentation. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Trademark law. Proprietor of the Benelux word-figurative mark EnergieAPK sued Essent for the use of the sign Energie-APK. It was successfully argued that the word element EnergieAPK of this trademark had no distinctive character and that the plaintiff could not oppose the use of Energie-APK by Essent. The judge in preliminary relief proceedings ruled that there was no trademark infringement within the meaning of Article 2.20(1) of the BCIP and dismissed the claims. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Trademark and trade name infringement. Vakantieveilingen.nl was confronted with the trade and domain name vakantieveiling.nl of a competitor. On the basis of its trademark and trade name rights, at both the district court and the court of appeal it was requested that the infringing use of the trade and domain name should be discontinued. Read the judgment in Dutch here.

Use of trademark and name of public figure in advertising. Carglass used the first name of chef-cook Cas Spijker in her national newspaper ad with the claim “Cas, you’ll lose your star with us too”. Cas Spijkers claimed material and immaterial damages on the basis of his trademark rights, and other rights. Both claims were rejected. Read the judgment in Dutch here.