August 2010 - On 25th August 2010 Marleen van den Horst (partner IP & Technology) has given a presentation on Patent Litigation for the International BioBusiness Summer School, held in Amsterdam.
August 2010 - BarentsKrans has appointed Jeffrey Koenecke as a partner within the firm's Real Estate department. Jeffrey joins the firm from Loyens & Loeff where he was a notary within the Real Estate Group. Jeffreys arrival marks BarentsKrans’ aim to expand the real estate activities. The real estate department houses litigation and transaction lawyers. They work as an integrated team to advise clients on all legal aspects of commercial real estate transactions.
June 2010 - On 1st June 2010 Marleen van den Horst (partner IP & Technology) spoke a seminar on Patent Litigation together with litigators from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Germany. The seminar focussed on the differences in proceedings and outcome of a pharmaceutical patent case, that had been litigated in all these jurisdictions. The seminar took place in Rome, preceeding the annual conference of EGA (European Generic Association).
May 2010 - The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) has reached an agreement in principle with health care trade associations ActiZ and BTN on a special form of supervision for the nursing, care and homecare sector. It is unique for the NMa to be prepared to enter into this kind of collective alternative settlement of known and unknown cases. The agreement entails the following: On a voluntary basis, care institutions will report all their agreements (including those in pending (penalty) cases) before 31 December 2010. The agreements will be reviewed by an independent committee. If this committee finds these agreements to be restricting competition, they will immediately be ceased and the care institutions will pay an amount into an innovation fund. The NMa will not take enforcement action in such cases. Additionally, the care organisations are held to implement ambitious compliance programmes. This settlement allows the nursing, care and home care sector to make a fresh start. At the same time it creates greater clarity as to what is and is not permitted under the competition rules. (Pierre V.F. Bos and Mariëtte J. Plomp).
March 2010 - The Dutch Medical Evaluation Board (College ter Beoordeling van Geneesmiddelen, “CBG”) has decided anew upon the authorisations to market medicinal products containing es-citalopram of a number of pharmaceutical companies. This anti-depression drug which is often prescribed could temp- orarily only be marketed by the developer of this medicinal product, Lundbeck. Initially, Lundbeck success- fully opposed the grant of the marketing authorisations to other generic companies. BarentsKrans acted for these companies in the proceedings in appeal. Both the administrative court and the CBG rejected Lundbeck’s objections and the marketing authorisations were restored. This procedure is closely inter- related to procedures in other European countries and is therefore internationally carefully watched (Marleen H.J. van den Horst en Annemieke W. Kooy).
February - BarentsKrans and SteensmaEven have assisted the pension and insurance company for the cultural sector "Kunst en Cultuur Pensioen- en Levensverzekeringsmaatschappij NV" in the sale of its life insurance activities to insurance company Paerel Leven. After the sale, the company will focus on the administration of pension schemes (Michiel Martin).
February 2010 – BarentsKrans has assisted two existing trade associations in the funeral sector with the incorporation of a new national trade association, the 'Branchevereniging Gecertificeerde Nederlandse Uitvaartondernemingen' (BGNU). This new trade association represents the vast majority of the Dutch funeral sector as regards market share and number of funeral enterprises (Martijn G.P. van Ansem and Otto W. de Jong).
January 2010 – On 27 January 2010 Marleen van den Horst, partner IP & Technology, joins a panel discussion on recent case law and requirements for Supplementary Protections Certificates across Europe. This discussion is part of the international conference on Pharma & Biotech patent litigation. This conference is held in Amsterdam and is attended by in-house patent counsels, patent managers from biotech and pharma companies, IP counsels and patent attorneys.
July 2009 – Verliespolis Foundation and Woekerpolis claim foundation have reached a settlement with insurance company AEGON on solutions for consumers with unit-based insurance policies. AEGON reserves € 250 million based on the agreement with the foundations, including fundings of € 80 million for people in distressing situations. This amount comes on top of earlier compensations at an amount of € 380 million. AEGON is the fifth big insurance company to reach a settlement with The Verliespolis foundation and Woekerpolis claim foundation. The Verliespolis foundation is an initiative of the Dutch Shareholders Association (the "VEB") and the Dutch Homeowners' Association (the "VEH"). BarentsKrans' William Schonewille and PelsRijcken's Jurjen Lemstra are acting as counsel to the Verliespolis foundation.
June 2009 - BarentsKrans has assisted Abu Dhabi-based investment company Waha Capital in acquiring a fifty percent stake in AerVenture Limited. The remaining fifty percent will be held by AerCap, a global aviation company. AerVenture, established in 2006 with a focus on the new Airbus A320 family aircraft, has assets of $2.4 billion, including 22 A320s plus firm orders for a further 32. The parties have committed to a combined total equity investment in AerVenture of $270 million. (Martijn G.P. van Ansem, Nick J. Surber and Otto W. de Jong).