Why choose our Intellectual Property lawyers?
When a dispute arises, our team offers clients robust support across the board. Our lawyers litigate cases in all fields of intellectual property law, including patents, trade marks, design rights, copyright, trade names and domain names, before both the Belgian civil and criminal courts.
The team can also assist research-driven companies drafting and negotiating IP-sensitive agreements such as joint development and license and distribution agreements, and advise life sciences clients on regulatory matters such as advertising and pricing and reimbursement questions.
In terms of non-contentious matters, our experts partner with our IP-rich clients to design strategies to maximise the value of their IP assets through merchandising and other deals.
Our team has conducted several in-depth audits of IP-rights portfolios, including the refocusing of such portfolios, and regularly clears advertising and marketing campaigns for clients from an IP and unfair competition perspective (considering issues like comparative advertising, discount strategies, promotional contests and loyalty programs).
Clients benefit from Fieldfisher's wide range of expertise and its geographic stretch. In close collaboration with other practices in Brussels, we advise clients on issues at the intersection between IP and other fields of law, such as patent income deduction schemes, employee inventions and parallel imports. This ensures clients receive a convenient and cheaper service.
Our team is integrated with the IP teams in our other European offices, allowing us to provide our clients with a co-ordinated strategy for IP matters covering the most important European IP jurisdictions.
The team is very active in matters on the crossroads between IP law and other fields of law such as:
- Technology law
- Tax law
- Trade secrets law
- E-commerce law
- Media law
- Sports law
Our practice has developed throughout the years a demonstrated expertise in all IP-rich and/or highly regulated sectors such as:
- Media and telecoms
- Life sciences
- Consumer products
- Tech
- Sports
- Energy and natural resources
The team addresses the needs of its differing clients ranging from individual designers, start-ups and academic institutions over governmental organisations) to well-established Bel-20 companies and multinationals.
Recent deals and highlights:
- The decision of the president of the Antwerp Commercial Court of 19 December 2018 in favour of our client Vitra, whereby the Court confirmed the copyright infringements and ordered the opposing party to cease all sales of the infringing goods under a penalty of 1000 EUR per sold infringing item.
- The decision of the Antwerp Court of Appeal of 28 January 2019 in a case regarding penalties following a conviction for trademark infringement. This case sets an important precedent as to the scope of injunctions in trade mark infringement proceedings and as to the penalties which are due when the adverse party abused its rights.
- The decision of the president of the Brussels Commercial Court of April 2019 whereby, in a copyright infringement case opposing our client Studio 100, Greenpeace was ordered to cease the use and distribution of the Maya the Bee commercials under a penalty of 2500 EUR per day per infringement. It is probably the first important parody case after the European Court of Justice provided some guidance on the concept in the famous Deckmyn case.
What Others Say About Us
One client is particularly impressed, stating "The way the lawyers handled our patent case was really great."