The Gazette 1989

MARCH 1989

GAZETTE

Eurlegal (or why we put Peter Sutherland in Pink) by Ken Murphy, Solicitor*

have 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! 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. devised the First EC Regulation on Franchising (OJL 359/46 of 28.12.88)

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

*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. 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 of 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.

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