Insights & News /  Litigation

We were interviewed by TheMarker on the subject of who owns the Facebook page of a popular TV program—the host or the network and asserted that all intellectual property created by a worker in the framework of the workplace belongs to the employer.

Adv. Yuval Lazi will lecture today at the Heseg Innovators Program (HIP) on issues of intellectual property in the entrepreneurship world.

Our firm is representing a former teaching assistant at the School of Business Administration at the College of Management in an application for a class action suit submitted to the Labor Court.

We were interviewed on a financial radio program regarding the fate of a lawsuit when the plaintiff passes away. We explained that the lawsuit continues via the heirs or the estate manager, who enter the shoes of the deceased. (starting at min' 9.40)

RGE, represented by Adv. Zohar Lande, Ronen Reingold and Adi Shoham of Barnea, petitioned the High Court of Justice over the results of a tender concerning the operation of the new Knesset channel. It requested an interim order that would prevent the agreement with Channel 20, who had won the tender. In a hearing held today at the High Court of Justice, the interim order was issued, freezing the results of the tender.

Roni Mana, represented by Adv. Zohar Lande and Gal Livshitz from the Litigation Department at Barnea, requested the court to order that Arena Star Group Ltd. pay brokerage fees for the sale of the Arena mall in Herzeliya. The Tel Aviv District Court today accepted Mana's request for a temporary foreclosure on the funds received by the company for the sale of the mall.

Adv. Zohar Lande, Head of the Litigation Department at Barnea represented GBI Racing, the UK racing betting company, at a hearing before the Ministry of Finance, following the decision to cancel betting on horse racing in Israel.

Adv. Asaf Shalev will lecture today on the topics of founders agreements and IP at the Entrepreneurship Course of Startau, Tel Aviv University Entrepreneurship Center.

Adv. Ronit Offir, Partner in the Litigation Department at Barnea, was appointed as a judge to the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court. Adv. Offir joined our firm in 2010 and has extensive experience in representing Israeli and international companies in complex litigation cases before the District Court, the Supreme Court and in arbitration proceedings.

The Haifa District Court ruled that Gad Zeevi would have to pay businessman Zeev Rom USD 1.5 million in brokerage fees in respect of a deal in which Zeevi acquired 20% of Bezeq in 2000. Adv. Zohar Landa and Adv. Moran Bickel from the litigation department at Barnea, represented Zeev Rom.

Adv. Itay Gura will lecture today on founders agreements and IP at the BEE program, part of the Tel Aviv University entrepreneurship center.

Adv. Itay Gura from Barnea will lecture today on investment agreements and intellectual property to students participating in the Startup Science Innovation seminar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After the rejection of the Nespresso and Nestle case against Espresso Club in which they alleged copyright infringement, Espresso Club, represented by our firm, filed an appeal regarding the amount of expenses determined by the District Court, claiming that the amount is unreasonable in relation to the actual expenses.

Adv. Zohar Lande, Adv. Jacques Gershoni and Adv. Yatir Madar from the Litigation Department at Barnea, succeeded in cancelling an arbitration ruling in the Tel Aviv District Court, a cancellation which was then upheld by the Supreme Court. The parties had appointed an arbitrator to hear and rule on a specific dispute between them. After the arbitrator had issued an arbitration award which had been fully carried out by both parties, the arbitrator joined forces with one of the parties, while attempting to ignore the arbitration award, which had already been carried out, with the aim of unilaterally issuing a new arbitration ruling. In fact, the new arbitration ruling overturned the original award, which, as noted, had been fully carried out by the parties. The party with whom the arbitrator had cooperated (the “other party’’), relying on the new arbitration ruling, filed a dual application to the Tel Aviv District Court - one for the approval of the new arbitration award and the second for the temporary imposition of liens on the property of Barnea’s client. Barnea's litigation team succeeded in obtaining an order for cancellation of the new arbitration award. The Court clarified that the new arbitration award was given without authority, because it exceeded the limits of the authorization defined by the parties and because it contradicted a previous ruling of the arbitrator. The other party did not accept the ruling of the District Court and chose to submit a motion for leave to appeal the ruling of the Tel Aviv District Court to the Supreme Court, as well as a request for temporary remedies in the appeal. Barnea filed a firm response to the other party’s request for temporary relief, in which it was made clear that the need to impose temporary liens was never examined on its merits in the District Court, and elaborated on the fact that the request for leave to appeal the judgment of the District Court lacked any basis both in law and in fact. The Supreme Court denied the motion for leave to appeal and instructed the other party to pay Barnea's client's legal fees and expenses. "It is known that the annulment of an arbitration award is a rare occurrence, and that it does not happen routinely," commented Adv. Zohar Lande, Head of the Litigation Department at Barnea. "This rejection by the Supreme Court actually means the upholding of the District Court’s  ruling,  the cancellation of the new arbitration award and, accordingly, the cancellation of the temporary remedies imposed on the assets of our client”.

Adv . Zohar Lande, Head of the Litigation Department at Barnea was interviewed by Globes on the Antitrust Authority's decision to impose an unprecedented monetary sanction on the Central Bottling Company Group (Coca Cola Israel). Zohar commented that it is not enough to set the monetary sanctions, submitting that the Antitrust Authority must make use of all the tools at its disposal, including the civilian tools.

The Tel Aviv District Court rejected the lawsuit filed by Nespresso and the global food company, Nestle, against the Israeli company, Espresso Club. Nespresso claimed that Espresso Club’s advertisement, which uses a look-alike of George Clooney, violates the intellectual property of Nespresso and constitutes unfair competition. The Court rejected Nespresso's claims and ordered it to pay Espresso Club NIS 110,070  in legal costs. Espresso Club was represented by Adv. Zohar Lande, Adv. Itay Hatam and Adv. Gili Cohen-Arazi from Barnea

Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Gilli Cohen Arazi from the Litigation Department at Barnea in an article for Chambers and Partners on recent trends in Israeli case law, which may indicate a change in the Israeli courts' attitude to judicial intervention in the business judgment of the Board of a corporation.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Moran Bickel from the Litigation Department at Barnea represented the CEO of Kitov Pharmaceuticals at a hearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court relating to his release from detention, subject to certain restrictive conditions.

Our Litigation Department was interviewed by Maariv's "The Weekend" following Eliezer Fishman's declaration of bankruptcy. We noted there are ways to prevent the loss of all family assets, even in the event of bankruptcy, and to avoid involving the family assets with business assets.

Doing Business in Israel? A QA guide to doing business in Israel written by Barnea was published in the Practical Law website. The guide gives an overview of the legal system, foreign investment, regulation, and other issues pertaining to Israel.