On 25th July 2014, Bart Van Besien was appointed as an Arbiter ('Panelist') in domainname disputes by the "Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre" (ADNDRC, with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur).  Bart is also an arbiter or panelist in domain name disputes with Cepani...

The European Union's Observatory on Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights recently launched a survey on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries. The IPR Survey will run until 10 June 2014. All users of Intellectual Property are invited to...

It is a pleasure to announce that I have been appointed as an arbitrator ('panelist' or 'third-party decider') in domain name disputes with the National Arbitration Forum ('Forum' - USA) and the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation ('Cepani' - Belgium).  Author: Bart Van Besien Finnian...

If you are a trademark owner, and you find that someone else has registered a domain name identical or confusingly similar to your own trademark, you may consider filing a domain name dispute before a special arbitration centre (or before a regular court).   Uniform Domain-Name Dispute...

In this article, I summarize the different ways to recover a Belgian “.be” internet domain name.   In Belgium, there are two ways to recover a domain name that is registered by someone else. The first way is the “alternative dispute resolution” (“ADR”) service provided by Cepina[1] (for .be...

In this article, I summarize how you can recover a .eu domain name.   A .eu domain name can be challenged either via a specific ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) procedure or in a regular court.   ADR procedure for .eu domain name disputes   In practice, most people choose for the...

With a contribution by Bart Van Besien and Pierre-François Docquir "Changing Conditions of Competition for Public Service and Commercial Media in Belgium: Implications for Media Independence".   For more information, see the website of Palgrave MacMillan. Author: Bart Van Besien Finnian &...

Under E.U. law, personal data can only be gathered under strict conditions. Those who collect and manage personal information are bound by a duty to protect it from misuse and to respect certain rights of the data owners.   The EU Data Protection Directive of 1995 (Directive 95/46/EC)...

The European Commission recently launched a public consultation to gather public input on the review of EU copyright rules (in particular, concerning the need to modernize copyright). All stakeholders may contribute to the consultation, including consumers, authors, performers, publishers,...

The US Fourth Circuit Court of appeals ruled last Wednesday that a 'like' on Facebook is protected as "free speech" under the US First Amendment.   Mr. Carter, a former deputy sheriff, claimed that he was fired for 'liking' the Facebook page of a man who was running against his boss for the...