Belgium: Intellectual Property

Does European law preclude the cancellation of a trademark bearing a creator's name when used by the assignee in such a way as to effectively create the impression that the creator is still involved...

The European Commission is currently seeking public feedback by 23 October 2025 on its proposed updates to the rules that govern how companies in the EU share technology with one another.

The Antwerp Court of Appeal has recently ruled on a series of cases (December 2023 – October 2024) concerning online copyright infringements. These cases often originated from an intermediary internet...

Rule 296.3 RoP is to be understood to mean that, after stayed proceedings are resumed, the applicable time limits continue to run from the date of the order resuming the proceedings, taking into account the time limits that had already expired prior to the stay of the proceedings.

Granting leave to amend at a late stage would allow the applicant to change its litigation strategy after the fact. A diligent patentee should coordinate its EPO and UPC positions from the beginning, rather than reacting once parallel proceedings develop unfavorably.

The Local Division Brussels of the Unified Patent Court issued a procedural order addressing the admissibility of further written pleadings in a patent infringement dispute between Establishment Labs S.A. and GC Aesthetics entities concerning European Patent EP 3 107 487. The order examines procedural rules governing additional submissions in both the main infringement action and the related counterclaim for revocation, with considerations of accessory liability under multiple national jurisdictions.

Today's blog post is the second blog post in a series focusing on European trade secret law issues and trends.

Today's blog post starts a series focusing on European trade secret law issues. We will focus on practical questions and share insights on how Belgian courts use the Belgian Trade Secrets Act...

In the latest episode of our Trade Secrets Series we discussed the measures aimed at maintaining the confidentiality of trade secrets during legal proceedings.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled on whether political expression and parody can justify the unauthorized use of a reputed trademark, examining the balance between intellectual property rights and freedom of speech. The case arose from a Belgian political party's immigration campaign that adopted IKEA's branding without permission, prompting Inter IKEA to bring infringement proceedings.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has delivered a landmark judgment addressing whether political parody and freedom of expression can justify the unauthorized use of a famous trade mark. When Belgian political party Vlaams Belang appropriated IKEA's distinctive branding to promote its immigration reform programme, the resulting legal battle forced European courts to balance fundamental rights: the trade mark owner's property rights against the political actor's freedom of expression.

From a trademark advisory perspective, e-commerce platform marketplaces, most notably Amazon, have added a distinct operational dimension to trademark registration.