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Tom Heremans

Partner

Tom Heremans

Tom Heremans

Partner

Contact
T +32 2 743 69 73
F +32 2 743 69 01
CMS DeBacker
Chaussée de La Hulpe 178
1170 Brussels
Belgium
Languages German, English, French, Dutch

Tom specialises in copyright, trademark and patent law, advertising and marketing, Internet and electronic commerce, media and technology, privacy, distribution law and commercial litigation. His clients include major food stuff manufacturers, domain name registries, retrailers, e- commerce companies and international football organisations.

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"Described by peers as a 'very brilliant lawyer', Tom Heremans specialises in advertising, e-commerce, privacy and IP. He acted for M7 Group in EUR1.5 million litigation against the collecting societies that were claiming royalties for the alleged retransmission of broadcasting signals."

Chambers Europe, 2017

"Tom Heremans is a well-regarded lawyer whom sources consider "a real specialist." He acts on IP matters related to distribution and franchising as well as on contentious trade mark, copyright and patent mandates. Work highlights include assisting UEFA with the full gamut of trade mark issues related to the EURO 2016 football tournament."

Chambers Europe, 2017

"[IP] Practice head Tom Heremans is valued for his ‘hands-on approach’"

Legal 500, 2017

"Described by peers as a 'very brilliant lawyer', Tom Heremans specialises in advertising, e-commerce, privacy and IP. He acted for M7 Group in EUR1.5 million litigation against the collecting societies that were claiming royalties for the alleged retransmission of broadcasting signals."

Chambers Europe, 2017

"Tom Heremans is a well-regarded lawyer whom sources consider "a real specialist." He acts on IP matters related to distribution and franchising as well as on contentious trade mark, copyright and patent mandates. Work highlights include assisting UEFA with the full gamut of trade mark issues related to the EURO 2016 football tournament."

Chambers Europe, 2017

"[IP] Practice head Tom Heremans is valued for his ‘hands-on approach’"

Legal 500, 2017

Relevant experience

  • Conducting domain name disputes as accredited “.eu” or “.be” panellist or acting as plaintiff or defendant for national and international clients
  • Proceedings before the Court of Justice of EU with regard to copyright and related rights in a case regarding satellite broadcasting (Airfield)
  • Represented a printing company before the Belgian Supreme Court regarding the alleged counterfeit of software
  • Providing advice to national and international companies regarding sales promotions and comparative advertising
  • Advising sports associations on unauthorised broadcasting of football games and on piracy and customs matters
  • Representing multinationals in trade mark disputes (e.g. injunctive relief proceedings, counterfeit seizures, custom seizures, claims for damages, …)
  • Assisted an international food stuffs manufacturer in a dispute regarding design protection of a food product
  • Conducted patent litigation for an international transport company in relation to an invention of a particular tram system
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Education

  • 1991 - Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB (Law Degree)
  • 1991 - Bar admission (Brussels, Belgium)
  • 1993 - Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB (Postgraduate in Business Law)
  • 1998 - University of California, Los Angeles (LL.M., 1998)
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Memberships

  • Lecturer at the EHSAL Management School and Odisee (KULeuven) on the legal aspects of marketing and of social media
  • Member of the Council for the Intellectual Property
  • Former president of the Benelux Trade Mark Association B.M.M.
  • Winner of the Wim Mak Award in 2006 of the Benelux Trade Mark Association
  • Member of the International Trademark Association (INTA)
  • Member of the Belgian Copyright Law Association
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Publications

  • « Marketing, intellectuele rechten en sociale media » (with L. Depypere) in Sociale Media anno 2015 - Actuele juridische aspecten, E. LIEVENS, E. WAUTERS & P. VALCKE (ed.), Antwerpen, Intersentia, 2015, 1-38.
  • « Le nouveau Code de Droit Économique va-t-il enfin abroger la loi de 1961 relative aux concessions de vente ? » (with L. Depypere) in R. Dupont (éd.) «Retail – Aperçu juridique - Hommage André Lombart », Larcier 2014, p. 143-168
  • « 101 marketingvragen juridisch beantwoord », Intersentia, 2018, 232 p.
  • « De Whois databank van domeinnaamhouders : enkele beschouwingen », in Les noms de domaine.be/.be domeinnamen, CEPANI, Bruylant, 2012
  • « De nieuwe wet marktpraktijken en consumentenbescherming : volledig overzicht van oud en nieuw – La nouvelle loi relative aux pratiques du marché et à la protection du consommateur »: tout sur l’ancien et le nouveau régime » , Larcier, 2010, 306 pages
  • « Domeinnamen: een juridische analyse van een nieuw onderscheidingsteken », Brussels, Larcier, 2003, book about the legal status of domain names, 228 pages
  • « Internetadvertenties en trefwoorden : het Hof van Justitie over Google AdWords », (with L. Bieseman), BMM Bulletin, 2011, p. 2-16
  • « Sports Image Rights in Belgium », co-author with T. De Jong, P, I.S. Blackshaw and C.R. Siemann, Asser Institute, 2005
  • « Alternatieve geschillenbeslechting in het .eu domein: een overzicht van de procedure en de eerste uitspraken », Bull. B.M.M. 2006, liv. 3, p. 110-117
  • « Onenigheid in de rechtspraak over de bevoegdheid inzake het Gemeenschapsmerk en over metatags als reclame-uiting », Annuaire Pratique du Commerce & Concurrence 2007, p. 133
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Expertise

September 2018
101 mar­ket­ingv­ragen jur­idisch beant­woord (derde edit­ie)
me­di­umMag ik mezelf in re­clame een Rolls Royce noe­men? Wat met flu­ister­solden? Welke tek­ens kunnen als merk gedepon­eerd worden? Zijn lookalikever­pakkin­gen toe­gel­aten? Mo­gen werkne­mers zelf bericht­en plaat­sen via so­ciale netwerken over hun bedrijf (“Vind ik leuk”)?Het aan­bieden van pro­duc­ten en di­en­sten roept vele jur­idische vragen op. De ver­pakking, de merknaam, de re­clame en de pro­motieacties: alles moet wettelijk in or­de zijn.De derde herziene edit­ie van het boek 101 mar­ket­ingv­ragen jur­idisch beant­woord telt niet al­leen één vraag meer, het boek bevat ook een volledig nieuw hoof­d­stuk over de Alge­mene Ver­or­den­ing Gegevens­bes­cherm­ing of GDPR. Deze edit­ie is boven­di­en aangevuld met vragen over ac­tuele on­der­wer­pen zoals in­flu­en­cer mar­ket­ing en met nieuwe il­lus­traties. Vele prak­tijk­voor­beelden en cases wer­den ge­ac­tu­al­iseerd.Zo gidst ad­vocaat Tom Here­mans u doorheen de vele as­pec­ten van het mar­ket­in­grecht. De vragen zijn ge­baseerd op cas­ussen uit de da­gelijkse prak­tijk van de auteur en leiden telkens tot een con­crete oplossing.De vragen zijn geordend vol­gens de on­der­staande thema’s:cor­recte in­form­atie en misleidende re­clame;vergelijkende re­clame;prijs­ver­mind­erin­gen en solden;lo­ter­ijen, kansspelen en wed­strijden;geza­men­lijk aan­bod of kop­pel­verkoop;verkoop­meth­oden buiten de on­dernem­ing;verkoop met ver­lies;auteursrecht;merken;pri­vacy (AVG of GDPR)so­ciale me­dia;sanc­ties.Boek be­stel­len
Publication
December 2017
Mis­lead­ing rep­res­ent­a­tions of new "de­sign­er food"
Like many oth­er in­dus­tries, the food in­dustry is in­nov­at­ing rap­idly and food pro­du­cers are launch­ing new products reg­u­larly to sat­is­fy con­sumer de­mand.But how should these new products be presen­ted to con­sumers? Is a beef­bur­ger de­signed and grown in a labor­at­ory still a beef­bur­ger, even if it does not con­tain any beef? Can a pro­du­cer present a soy­bean product as a ve­get­ari­an chick­en? Must yoghurt or cream be made from cow’s milk?In this pub­lic­a­tion, CMS law­yers from vari­ous jur­is­dic­tions ex­plain how pro­du­cers and re­tail­ers can in­form the con­sumers cor­rectly about the new de­sign­er foods that they of­fer.Or­der the com­plete guide here
Guide

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24 June 2020
We­bin­ar re­cord­ings - Cov­id-19 (Coronavir­us) in Bel­gi­um
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29 November 2018
CMS Ex­pert Guide to in­ter­im meas­ures
Are you look­ing for in­form­a­tion on in­ter­im meas­ures? This CMS Ex­pert Guide provides you with everything you need to know.
Expert Guide Dispute Resolution
24 April 2020
Trade­marks, pub­lic policy and prin­ciples of mor­al­ity in the time of corona
Dur­ing this un­cer­tain corona peri­od, it was in­ev­it­able that someone would have the idea of re­gis­ter­ing “COV­ID-19”, “CORONAVIR­US” or vari­ants as a trade­mark. But can such trade­marks be con­sidered...
Law-Now Intellectual Property
20/11/2019
CMS wins Trends Leg­al Award for "Best Bel­gian Law Firm in IP, IT & TMT"
News TMC - Technology, Media & Communications
05 March 2020
Coronavir­us and force ma­jeure in com­mer­cial con­tracts
Many com­pan­ies are suf­fer­ing from the out­break of the coronavir­us through the dis­rup­tion of their nor­mal busi­ness activ­it­ies. This dis­rup­tion is of­ten caused by either a com­pany’s in­ab­il­ity to per­form...
Law-Now Coronavirus (COVID-19)
02/04/2019
European Uni­on Trade Mark Reg­u­la­tion and Com­munity Design Reg­u­la­tion
A Com­ment­ary
Publication Intellectual Property
26 November 2019
Cri­ti­ciz­ing your com­pet­it­or on its blog could cost you EUR 1,500!
Re­cently, the An­t­werp En­ter­prise Court had to de­cide wheth­er a Dutch un­der­tak­ing was li­able for cri­ti­ciz­ing a Bel­gian com­pet­it­or on that com­pet­it­or’s own blog. The court held the Dutch un­der­tak­ing li­able...
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30/11/2018
Novem­ber 2018 News­let­ter
Newsletter Banking & Finance
26 June 2019
EU Reg­u­la­tion on on­line plat­forms ap­proved
On 14 June 2019, the Coun­cil of the European Uni­on ap­proved the new Reg­u­la­tion on pro­mot­ing fair­ness and trans­par­ency of on­line plat­forms. The new Reg­u­la­tion will enter in­to ef­fect in sum­mer 2021, without...
Law-Now TMC - Technology, Media & Communications
28/09/2018
Septem­ber 2018 News­let­ter
Newsletter Banking & Finance
13 February 2019
Dot eu do­main names in a no deal Brexit - What's the plan?
In­tro­duc­tion EUR­id is the private, in­de­pend­ent, not for profit or­gan­isa­tion that has op­er­ated the .eu TLD since 2003. Last year EUR­id re­por­ted the EU Com­mis­sion’s No­tice to Stake­hold­ers which an­nounced...
Law-Now Brexit
September 2018
101 mar­ket­ingv­ragen jur­idisch beant­woord (derde edit­ie)
Publication Commercial Law
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