In the Netherlands, the "taking" of trade secret information can also be criminally prosecuted under circumstances, particularly via computer hacking (art. 138ab Sr) when someone uses systems with their own login credentials for a purpose for which such access was not granted. This route is not limited to espionage-like cases, but can also come into play for seemingly innocent assistance to a (former) colleague, especially if downloading, exporting or forwarding is involved. In practice, the civil route (Wbb e.v.) usually remains the quickest and most steerable, but criminal law may be appropriate as an additional route in serious or systematic abuse scenarios.

The product liability rules we know today are almost 40 years old. The European directive[1] dates back to 1985, an era of the Walkman and fax machines. We now live in a digital and circular economy, in which products are often no longer purely tangible but contain complex software. Global supply chains have also made it more complicated to [...]

The United Kingdom left the European Union almost five years ago. For many trademark owners, Brexit was reason at the time to pay extra attention to their trademark protection in the UK. An important transitional aspect of this is now coming to an end: the transitional regime for so-called UK clone registrations ends on December 31, 2025. In this article, we explain what [...]