The Gazette 1989

GAZETTE

MARCH 1989

Eurlegal

(or why we put Peter Sutherland in Pink)

Ken Murphy, Solicitor*

*Ken Murphy is a solicitor in the

Brussels office of A&L Goodbody.

He is a member of the Council of

the Law Society and Chairman of

the E.C. (1992) and International

Affairs Committee.

Not everybody loved the pink

colour of our January cover. It

wasn't chosen for its attractive-

ness, but for its significance. This

particular shade is the official

colour which denotes that a

European Community publication is

in English rather than any of the

other eight working languages each

of which has a different colour. And

so for our first "European" issue

we thought it an appropriate colour

to choose.

Because there are rather a lot of

other, more important things which

not many Irish solicitors seem to

know in the areas of European law

in general and the 1992 programme

in particular, the Law Society sees

a need to encourage the profession

to take a new interest in these

areas.

To co-ordinate this the President,

Maurice Curran, has set up the EC

(1992) and International Affairs

Committee. In spite of its rather

inelegant title, this Committee has

set to work with a will. The special

European law issue of the Gazette

in January was the first tangible

result of its efforts.

The need to increase solicitors'

awareness and knowledge of

European Community law and

developments was very firmly

impressed on all who attended the

inaugural meeting of the Irish

Centre for European Law last year.

Peter Sutherland spoke of "the

opportunity and the threat which is

the double-edged sword of com-

petition".

The opportunity is that the Irish

legal system could become a

centre of excellence within the

European framework. The threat is

that failure to prepare to meet the

competition will result in the

gradual melting away of com-

mercial clients to other professional

advisers, both lawyers and non-

lawyers, in Ireland and abroad.

In the tradition of word-play

which gave us "EUROPEN", we

have

devised

the

word

"EURLEGAL" to give cohesion to

the Law Society campaign which,

we anticipate, will run right up to

1992. More details of the campaign

will be announed by the President

at the Law Society Annual

Conference in Killarney. This will be

held between the 4th/7th May next

and will be devoted to the topic of

1992 with John Hume, MEP, Peter

Sutherland, and Conor McCarthy

as guest speakers.

We can tell you at this stage,

however, that one of the features

of the campaign will be a greater

emphasis on European law topics

and 1992 developments in the

Gazette.

Although the following examples

relate largely to the area of intell-

ectual property, the Gazette's net

in the future will be cast widely and

deeply into the shoal of new laws

which will create the Single Market

and transform all economic activity

in Ireland and in Europe.

There will be more pink Gazettes!

First EC Regulation on

Franchising

(OJL 359/46 of 28.12.88)

With effect from 1st February

1988 the European Commission

has adopted a block exemption

regulation on franchising agree-

ments. Agreements which fall

within the scope of these regula-

tions will benefit automatically

from exemption under article 85 (3)

of the EEC Treaty. There will no

longer be a need to notify such

agreements to the Commission for

individual exemption.

In the recent years the number of

franchise contracts in the EC has

grown considerably. At the present

time there are 2,000 franchisors

and 80,000 franchisees, found

mainly in the Northern member

states, which account for 10% of

the EC retail trade. Yet, there are no

national laws on franchises.

The European Commission had

already taken individual decisions in

the

Pronuptia

case (which was also

the subject of a European Court of

Justice decision) and in the cases

Computerland, Yves Rocher,

and

Servicemaster.

These decisions

made it possible for the

Commission to gain the experience

necessary to draw up these general

regulations which provide a

framework of legal certainty and a

favourable approach to distribution

and service franchise contracts.

Commission issues new

Reguletion governing Trensfer

of "Know-how"

This Regulation is due to come into

effect on 1st April 1989. The

regulation results from a Com-

mission desire to encourage the

dissemination of new technology in

European industry. The intention is

to promote co-operation between

different operators in matters of

research and development.

The economic importance of

technological information not

protected by patents (called

"know-how") is illustrated by the

large number of such agreements

at present concluded by industry.

Among the many features of this

new block exemption are the

definitions of know-how together

with the regulation of the field and

length of application of legal

restrictions in such agreements.

Contd. on page 87.