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Plain-English guides, checklists, ebooks and more.
- Intellectual property
Can I Protect My Software?
Software is protected by copyright, sometimes by patent, and by trade secret law. This article explains what each protects, who owns the code, and how the rights combine.
- Commercial
Commercial Contracts: a Map
The main families of commercial contract, the EU and national rules that frame them, and where risk and value tend to sit.
- Information Technology
Database Rights and Trade Secrets
How the EU database right, copyright and trade secret law protect data and databases, what each requires, and where contracts must fill the gaps.
- Commercial
Distribution and Reseller Agreements
How to structure distribution and reseller agreements in the EU: exclusivity, termination protection, online sales, and the brand provisions that keep control.
- Intellectual property
Finding the IP You Already Have
Most companies own more intellectual property than they have registered. This article explains which rights arise without registration, how an IP audit finds them, and why ownership matters.
- Patents
Freedom-to-Operate Analysis
What a freedom-to-operate analysis is, how claims are read against a product, what it can and cannot tell you, and what to do when it finds a problem.
- Corporate and M&A
Funding Rounds: Term Sheets and Investment Agreements
How an equity round for a company in the EU works, the term sheet, what each clause does, the investment and shareholders' agreements, and what investors check first.
- Tax
Grants and Tax Incentives for IP in Belgium
An overview of the Belgian instruments that lower the cost of creating IP and the tax on the income it earns, and the documents you need before you can claim them.
- Intellectual property
How to Value an IP Portfolio
Why and when an IP portfolio is valued, the three standard valuation approaches, and the legal facts that decide whether a right is worth what its owner thinks.
- Corporate and M&A
IP in Due Diligence
What a buyer or investor checks about a company's intellectual property, why chain of title is the most common problem, and how a seller can prepare.
- Intellectual property
IP Lifecycle Management
Every intellectual property right has a life: it is created, protected, maintained, used and eventually ends. This article describes those stages, their legal terms and the decisions each one calls for.
- Commercial
Licensing Agreements
How to structure an IP licence: scope, royalties, improvements, quality control, termination, and the EU rules that frame it.
- Corporate and M&A
M&A for Growing Businesses
A practical walk through an M&A deal, share or asset deal, price mechanisms, warranties, change of control and getting from signing to closing.
- Commercial
Manufacturing and Supply Agreements
What a manufacturing or supply agreement must settle: specifications, quality, liability, exclusivity and, above all, who owns the tooling, know-how and improvements.
- Commercial
Master Services Agreements and SOWs
How a master services agreement and statements of work split the legal terms from the project detail, and how EU and national rules shape the key clauses.
- Patents
Prior Art and How to Search for It
What counts as prior art under the European Patent Convention, what a patentability search covers, how it is done and what it cannot tell you.
- Commercial
Running an RFI or RFP
How to run a request for information or proposal so that confidentiality, IP and your contract terms are protected before you choose a vendor.
- Commercial
SaaS Agreements
Subscriptions, service levels, data ownership, liability and exit in SaaS contracts, with the GDPR, the Data Act and national contract rules.
- Commercial
Technology Transfer Agreements
How to move patents, know-how or software to a partner without losing control, and the EU competition rules that apply to the deal.
- Information Technology
The EU Data Act
What Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 requires of makers and users of connected products, data holders, cloud providers and anyone who contracts about data, and when each part applies.
- Intellectual property
Transferring and Licensing a Trademark
How assignments and licences of EU and Benelux trademarks work, why they should be recorded, and how customs recordals fit in.
- Intellectual property
UDRP and Domain Name Disputes
How a bad-faith domain name can be recovered under the UDRP and URS, and under the separate procedure for .eu names, under country-code procedures, or through the courts.
- Intellectual property
What Is a Trademark Clearance Search?
A clearance search checks, before you file or launch, whether earlier rights stand in the way of a new mark. This article explains what it covers, what it cannot do and how to read the result.
- Intellectual property
What Is a Trademark Watch?
A trademark watch tells you when someone files a mark that resembles yours, while opposition is still possible. This article explains why it matters, how it works and what it cannot do.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI in HR and Recruitment
Which AI tools in recruitment and people management are prohibited or high-risk under the AI Act, what employers must do, and how national labour law and the GDPR add to it.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI Clauses in Vendor Contracts
Which clauses to expect and negotiate when you buy or supply AI: AI Act allocation, data use, output ownership, IP indemnity, liability and change control.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI and Intellectual Property: Training Data, Copyright and Disclosure
How EU copyright law and the AI Act treat training data, rights holders' opt-outs, training summaries, and the protection of AI-generated output and inventions.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI Act Meets GDPR: Where the Two Frameworks Overlap
How the AI Act and the GDPR apply side by side to the same AI system: roles, impact assessments, automated decisions, transparency, data quality and special categories.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
Conformity Assessments for High-Risk AI
What a provider of a high-risk AI system must demonstrate before market entry under the AI Act, which assessment route applies and what follows afterwards.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
Building an AI Governance Framework
What an internal AI governance framework consists of, which legal duties it must carry, and how a mid-sized organisation can build one in proportion to its use of AI.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
The AI Literacy Obligation
Article 4 of the AI Act has applied since February 2025 to every company using AI. What it requires, how the 2026 amendment changed it and what to document.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
Provider or Deployer?
The AI Act allocates duties by role. Who counts as provider, deployer, importer or distributor, and when does a deployer become a provider?
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI Act Timeline: What Applies When
The application dates of the AI Act as of October 2026, including the postponement of the high-risk rules adopted in 2026.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
AI Act Risk Classification
How to tell whether an AI system is prohibited, high-risk, subject to transparency duties or free of specific obligations under the AI Act.
- Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
The EU AI Act: a Practical Overview
What the AI Act regulates, who it applies to, how the risk-based approach works and what the penalties are, as of October 2026.
- Intellectual property
Renewal Management for IP Portfolios
How renewals of trademarks, designs and patents work, what the grace periods are, how to decide which rights to keep, and the invoice scams to avoid.
- Intellectual property
When to Oppose a Trademark
Opposition lets the owner of an earlier right challenge a new trademark application before it is registered. This article explains the conditions, the deadlines and the factors that decide whether to proceed.
- Intellectual property
The Nice Classification Explained
The Nice Classification sorts goods and services into 45 classes. This article explains how it works, why wording matters and what it does not decide.
- Intellectual property
IP Cost Planning for Multi-Jurisdiction Filings
What a trademark portfolio costs depends on routes, classes and countries as much as on the number of marks. This article sets out the cost elements and how to plan them over the life of a mark.
- Intellectual property
Online Brand Protection: How Brand Monitoring Works
How infringements of a trademark are found online, which rules decide whether they are unlawful, and which routes exist to stop them.
- Intellectual property
EUIPO Fast Track
Fast Track speeds up examination of EU trade mark applications that use pre-approved wording. This article explains what it is, what it does not change and when it makes sense.
- Intellectual property
Understanding Trademark Similarity
Whether two marks conflict depends on how similar they are and how close the goods are. This article explains the test and how its elements are weighed.
- Intellectual property
Managing Your IP Deadlines
Which time limits matter in trademark, design and patent matters, which of them can be extended, what happens when one is missed, and how a reliable deadline process is built.
- Intellectual property
Trademark Registration: From Application to Registration
How a trademark application moves through the EUIPO, the Benelux office (BOIP) and the Madrid System, what happens after registration, and what keeps a registered mark in force.
- Corporate and M&A
Sanctions Screening and AML
What EU sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules require from businesses, who must identify beneficial owners, and how screening works in practice.
- Privacy & Data Protection
How Long May You Keep Personal Data?
The storage limitation principle in Article 5(1)(e) GDPR, how to set retention periods and how to delete in practice.
- Privacy & Data Protection
Cookies and Consent
When a cookie banner is required, what valid consent looks like and how the ePrivacy rules and the GDPR work together.
- Privacy & Data Protection
Data Subject Access Requests
How the right of access works under Article 15 GDPR, how to handle the deadline, what you may refuse and what a good response contains.
- Privacy & Data Protection
Data Breaches: the 72-Hour Rule
When a personal data breach must be notified to the data protection authority and to individuals, how the 72 hours are counted and what to document.
- Privacy & Data Protection
International Data Transfers
How Chapter V GDPR works after Schrems II: adequacy decisions, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, standard contractual clauses and the assessment that goes with them.
- Privacy & Data Protection
Website Technology Audits and the GDPR
What a website technology audit examines, why privacy notices and actual data flows drift apart, and which legal duties it checks.
- Privacy & Data Protection
Records of Processing Activities (RoPA)
What Article 30 GDPR requires you to record, who must keep a register, and how to keep it useful.
- Corporate and M&A
M&A Due Diligence: What to Expect
What a due diligence review covers in a share or asset deal in the EU, how the process runs, and how the findings turn into price, warranties and conditions.
- New gTLDs
Brand TLDs in Financial Services
Why banks and insurers look at brand TLDs, what a brand TLD can and cannot do against phishing, and which EU rules shape the decision.
- New gTLDs
ICANN's Next Round of New gTLDs (2026)
Where ICANN's 2026 round of new generic top-level domains stands in October 2026, how the process continues after the application window, and what it means for brand owners.
- New gTLDs
Strategic Use Cases for Brand TLDs
How companies use a brand TLD in practice, from authentication and anti-phishing to internal systems and partner networks, and the legal points that go with each use.
- New gTLDs
Brand TLDs in the 2026 Round: the Applicant Guidebook
What a brand TLD is, how the Applicant Guidebook treats it, and the contract obligations that come with running one.
- Corporate and M&A
Transitional Services Agreements
What a transitional services agreement covers, the terms that decide whether the handover runs smoothly, and how to plan the exit from the start.
- New gTLDs
History of ICANN's New gTLD Program
How the top-level domain space grew from a handful of extensions to more than a thousand, and what the earlier rounds teach applicants and brand owners today.
- Tax
Copyright and Lawyers: Belgium's Court of Cassation
Belgium's Court of Cassation held that the rules of the legal profession do not rule out copyright in a lawyer's writing, and what this means for ownership, engagement letters and tax.
- Information Technology
The NIS2 Directive
Who falls under NIS2, what the directive requires, how the 24-hour, 72-hour and one-month incident reports work and how they relate to GDPR breach notification.
- Tax
The Belgian Tax Regime for Copyrights
How copyright fees are taxed at 15% as movable income in Belgium, what the 2023 reform changed, and what to document so that the arrangement stands up.
- Patents
The Unified Patent Court
How the Unified Patent Court is organised, what it decides, how its proceedings differ from national courts, and what the opt-out means for your European patents.
- Patents
The Unitary Patent
What unitary effect is, which states it covers in October 2026, how it differs from validating a European patent country by country, and when each route makes sense.
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