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The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has refused to grant trademark protection to the "Euro 7" trade mark used by the Dutch cable channel of the same name. According to Euro 7 the use of the number "7" by newcomer "Sport 7", a Dutch sports channel, caused confusion in the television market place and thus amounted to trademark infringement. Both the President of the Amsterdam District Court, judging in first instance, and the Court of Appeal rejected Euro 7's claim. The use of a channel number as part of a television station's name was considered standard practice. Moreover, the Court of Appeal observed,...

On 15 November 1996, the Dutch Supreme Court ( Hoge Raad ), the competent court of cassation for the Netherlands Antilles, ruled that the existence of a broadcast monopoly on the Netherlands Antilles is not (yet) in violation with the rights guaranteed in paragraph 1 of Article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights. At the Netherlands Antilles, a relatively small group of Caribbean Islands and an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the stated-owned company ATM has an exclusive right to exploit a nation-wide cable system. TDS, a subsidiary of ATM, holds a similar license for a...

Nobody knows what the value of content on the Internet should be. Until now no customs in the pricing of the content have been developed. Mostly the rights on each copyrighted work have to be negotiated separately. Not surprisingly the collecting societies, who already have a pricing structure for the `old fashioned' analogue uses of music, are the first to come up with a tariff structure for the on-line use of music. In the Netherlands the collecting societies for performing and mechanical rights on music (Buma and STEMRA) jointly issued an experimental license for the on-line use of music. Web...

In the continuing struggle over what conditions may be set for access to cable networks, both the Media Authority ( Commissariaat voor de Media ) and the Minister of Economic Affairs have taken new decisions ( see also IRIS 1996-2: 8, IRIS 1996-6: 11, IRIS 1996-8: 14 and IRIS 1996-10: 19). The Minister of Economic Affairs, acting on basis of the Dutch Competition Act (Wet Economische Mededinging) , decided that Kabeltelevisie Amsterdam (KTA) must review its tariff structure within three months. The revised distribution fees must, in principle, be based on the actual costs of the cable distribution,...

By Decree of 14 November 1996, the Dutch Government has made several amendments to the Media Decree ( see IRIS 1996-7: 15). These amendments adapt the Media Decree to the recent changes in the Media Law (amendment of 4 April 1996; see IRIS 1996-5: 12). According to the new Decree, local and regional private commercial broadcasters no longer need the permission of the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) to broadcast advertisements. This possibility now automatically results from the Authority's assignment of broadcasting time. Secondly, the new Decree establishes criteria for the...