Newsletter October 2007
CORPORATE
Greater Flexibility of NV Law: Extended Purchase of Own
Shares
The flexible private limited liability company
("BV") gets new competition from the flexible public
limited liability company ("NV"). The amendments concern
the rules for capital maintenance in the NV. This can be compared
to the greater flexibility of BV law, which we discussed in our
September 2007 Newsletter.
read more
Parent Liable for Debts of a Subsidiary
More than 50 years ago the Dutch Supreme Court already started to
apply the doctrine of holding a parent company liable for debts of
its subsidiary. The subsequent case law has shown that when certain
conditions are met, a company can be held liable for the debts of
another company, which is especially common in the
parent/subsidiary relationship.
read more
EMPLOYMENT
Entitlement to a Smoke-Free Workplace
Since 1 January 2004 all Dutch employees - with the exception of
employees working in the hotel and catering industry - are entitled
to a smoke-free workplace. This is not a general ban on smoking,
but an order for the employer to ensure that all employees can
perform their work without being bothered by second-hand tobacco
smoke.
read more
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY
Simple Infringement Becomes Ever More Complex
In its most recent judgment on trademark
infringement (Céline) the European Court of Justice examined the
question whether the use of a trade name can infringe upon a
trademark under Article 5 (1) (a) of the Trademarks Directive. The
ECJ has formulated a very complicated answer, which causes the test
according to (a) to drift further away from its original purpose:
to prohibit simple, straightforward trademark infringement.
read more
Trademark Holder Misses Out on Badminton Domain Name
The Court in Preliminary Relief Proceedings has
ruled that despite its YONEX word mark the trademark holder Yonex
is not entitled to the domain name yonexbadminton.nl.
read more
MEDIA
Security Risk for Witness against Holleeder
The weekly magazine Vrij Nederland has been giving
an account of the Holleeder case and all related matters for quite
some time now. Bram Zeegers was a confidant of the murdered Willem
Endstra and has testified against Holleeder. Vrij Nederland
reported on this statement and illustrated the article with a
photograph of Endstra and Zeegers together. Zeegers successfully
opposed this publication.
read more
PRIVACY
CBP To Enforce the Law More Strictly
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (College
Bescherming Persoonsgegevens ("CBP")) is about to set out
a new course. In a memorandum dated 8 August 2007 chairman Jacob
Kohnstam wrote that the CBP will make more use of its powers of
enforcement than before.
read more
TECHNOLOGY
Declaration Handover Recognized by the Dutch Supreme Court
General terms and conditions may be voidable if they have not
been handed over in the right manner and at the right time. In
order to avoid discussions on the handover, the parties sometimes
include the following statement in the agreement: "By signing
this agreement you declare to have received and accepted the
general terms and conditions."
read more
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