Insights

Brussels and Doha – April 1, 2024: The Legal 500 Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) 2024 edition has recognized 16 practice areas and 11 lawyers in Crowell & Moring’s Brussels and Doha offices. The 11 individual lawyers received 18 total rankings across the 16 different practice areas.

Brussels – June 27, 2023: Crowell & Moring was honored with two awards: “Impact Case of the Year in Belgium” and “Impact Case of the Year in Europe” by Managing IP. The awards were presented at the publication’s annual IP awards ceremony on June 21, recognizing firms, individuals and companies “behind the most innovative and challenging IP work of the past year, as well as those driving the international IP market.”

Washington – June 26, 2023: Intellectual Asset Management recognized Crowell & Moring in its IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide, awarding the firm a gold band ranking as one of the top four firms handling patent litigation and transactions in Belgium, and a silver ranking for the firm’s Chicago office. The firm was also recommended nationally in the United States for trade secrets litigation. This marks the tenth consecutive year that the firm has been ranked in the guide in Belgium.

A number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024. On the one hand, there are new laws that have been adopted and will start to bite, and, on the other, there are proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

On April 26, 2023, the European Commission finally published its long-awaited EU Pharmaceutical Package. This Package introduces new draft legislation that would revise and replace existing EU pharmaceutical legislation in line with the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, which was adopted by the EU on November 25, 2020.

On November 17, 2022, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued four important decisions (here) relating to parallel imports of branded products within the internal market of the European Union (EU). This is a complex topic at the crossroads of free movement of goods and trademark enforcement in the EU.

Crowell & Moring's Brussels office is featured in an article highlighting recent partner and senior counsel appointments, as well as an overview of the practice strengths of those individuals and the office as a whole. Brussels partner and office head, Kristof Roox, praises his colleagues, saying, "Jan-Diederik [Lindeman]'s promotion and the addition of Geert [Bogaert] reinforces the strength and breadth of experience that our Brussels office offers and demonstrates our continued investment" in staff appointments. The piece also focuses on the key aspects of the Brussels office, in particular the advising and litigating experience in EU and Belgian Law, intellectual property, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences.

An inescapable part of marketing your (non-food) products consists of managing the risks caused by defective and/or non-compliant products. To deal with the legal aspect of this risk, economic operators must take measures prior to putting their products on the market as well as once the product has been commercialized.

In collaboration with the IBJ

For any company marketing a product, managing the risks associated with defective or non-compliant products is a key part of the process, both prior to and during commercialization. In particular, you will first need to determine which regulatory framework applies by mapping out the context in which the product is to be made available. Then, once the product has been placed on the market, you will need to know how to handle the various issues that could arise in relation to safety or regulatory non-compliance.