Insights & News /  Litigation

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.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Gal Livshits from the Litigation Department at Barnea are representing real estate agent, Roni Mana, and his agency, in a lawsuit filed at the Tel Aviv District Court against Arena Star Group Ltd, controlled by Marcus Weber, and the CEO, Michael Fuchs, for failure to pay brokerage fees in the amount of NIS 5.88 million.

Barnea is representing GBI Racing, a British company which provides betting services to Toto (the Israel Sports Betting Board). Adv. Zohar Lande participated in the Knesset Reform Committee meeting, which discussed the decision to cancel the permit given to Toto as proposed in the Economic Arrangements Law.

Barnea represents iTrader, an online forex trading company, which is under investigation by the Israeli Securities Authority. Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Moran Bickel from the Litigation department were interviewed by The Marker and commented that they hope the investigation by the ISA, which focuses on the company's activities during the period in which it was entitled to act as a trading platform, will end soon.

As previously published, Geller had filed a lawsuit alleging fraud in the amount of nearly NIS 70 million. Even though the main claim for fraud was dismissed, the District Court obliged Omer to pay millions of NIS to Geller deciding that they were granted to Omer as a loan. Geller and Omer both appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied Geller's appeal entirely, accepted Omer's appeal and returned the case to the District Court. This week, the District Court dismissed the action entirely and accepted Omer's argument that the funds were transferred to him as part of a share purchase transaction. The Court ruled that under these circumstances, Omer does not need to reimburse the funds or to transfer any shares.

Barnea represented Rafi Bar-Lev, former Salesman at the Israeli investment company Utrade of Aviv Talmor, whose operation was frozen by the Israel Securities Authority, at a hearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court.

Adv. Zohar Lande, Head of the Litigation department at Barnea is representing GBI Racing, a British company which provides betting services to Toto (the Israel Sports Betting Board). The company applied to the Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon, to reconsider the decision to ban horse racing wagering, which was approved by a government committee chaired by treasury Director General, Shai Babad.  The company contends that it was never given the opportunity to present other data to the committee on its behalf.

Barnea represents Hanan Mor Group, a public traded company, and other companies of the Hanan Mor Group, in a lawsuit filed against them by the contractor relating to a number of real-estate projects.  The contractor claimed damages and requested an order to prevent the forfeiture of bank guarantees. The court rejected the contractor 's request. The court also accepted in full the arguments raised by Barnea and criticized the conduct of the other party, pointing out that the version of the other side "raises questions". The court awarded Hanan Mor Group fees and costs in the amount of NIS 12,000.The Hanan Mor Group is represented by Adv. Zohar Lande, Adv. Itay Wigoda and Adv. Shachar Parnes from the Litigation Department at Barnea

Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Yaacov Gershoni from the Litigation Department at Barnea are representing Maurice Haliwa, a shareholder in Manor A.D. Construction Investments Ltd. Mr. Haliwa filed a lawsuit against Jacky Ben-Zaken and Avraam Nanikashvili in the amount of NIS 18 million.

Our Litigation department represented Pharma Cosmetics Laboratories Ltd. (formerly HL Cosmetics Laboratories) in an IP claim against a beautician and her partner. The Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court recently awarded compensation in favor of Pharma and rejected the defendants' claim that the Copyright Act does not apply to the images and texts they copied from Pharma’s website.

Barnea represented East and West Stores Ltd, a leading importer of foods into Israel from the Far East,  in a dispute concerning the use of the trade name "East and West" and its trademarks. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court filed by our litigation department,  the ruling made against the Company by the District Court ,which prohibited the Company from using the trade name "East and West" in some markets, was reversed (our firm was not involved in the District Court action). The Supreme Court  also reversed the contempt of court ruling issued against the Company. East and West Stores Ltd. was represented by Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Itai Wigoda. Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld assisted on the commercial aspects.

In an opinion article in Calcalist Magazine by Adv.  Zohar Lande, Partner and Head of the Litigation Department in our office, he  discussed the latest changes in the process of hiring interns at law firms. According to Zohar, despite shortcoming in these changes, regulatory intervention is necessary.

Barnea represents Espresso Club Ltd., an Israeli provider of home espresso machines using a capsule system, in a claim filed against them by Nespresso Israel, as well as the international Nestle and Nespresso corporations. The Plaintiffs’ claim that a TV commercial of Espresso Club, which features a George Clooney double, denigrates their brand's image and tarnishes Nespresso's reputation by ridiculing the Nespresso image. For the full article, Fox news, please click here