On the 18th of March, the District Court of Reykjavik dismissed the cases of the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company (ÁTVR) against Sante ehf., Santewines SAS and Arnar Sigurðsson
ÁTVR demanded that the defendants would cease to participate in the retail sale of alcohol online and that they would be held liable for damages that ÁTVR had suffered as a result of their participation in the retail sale of alcohol online. The judge dismissed this case and ruled that ÁTVR had no legal interest in preventing the companies’ online sales of alcohol and it was the task of the Minister of Finance to decide how the alcohol policy in Iceland would be implemented, not ÁTVR.
Birgir Már Björnsson, attorney and partner at LEX, represented Sante and Santewines with assistance from Fjölnir Ólafsson, attorney and associate. ÁTVR was also ordered to pay legal costs, ISK 1.65 million LEX’s clients

For more than 20 years Chambers and Partners have published directories on leading law firms in most of the countries in the world. Their ranking for 2022 for Europe and Global is now available. LEX is ranked a Leading Firm in Iceland. Chambers and Partners ranking is in the Corporate / Commercial and Dispute Resolution categories for both Europe and Global, as well as in the Intellectual Property category for Europe.

The Corporate / Commercial team is described as following:

„LEX Law Offices boasts a broad corporate and commercial offering, including public M&A and ECM mandates. The law firm also possesses high-level expertise in banking and finance. The lawyers additionally assist with the compliance and regulatory aspects of transactions.“

and notable practitioners are Guðmundur Ingvi Sigurðsson and Ólafur Haraldsson

„Guðmundur Ingvi Sigurðsson advises on a variety of cross-border mandates, including mergers, acquisitions and equity investments. One client enthuses that “he is a great lawyer,” explaining that he is “easy to approach and always delivers on time.”

Ólafur Haraldsson has a broad practice including refinancing and restructuring mandates as well as corporate transactions.“

The Dispute Resolution team is described as following:

„LEX Law Offices has a noteworthy team handling a comprehensive range of contentious matters, including competition, employment, human rights and white-collar crime cases. The law firm is experienced acting on both litigation and arbitration proceedings. The lawyers represent state entities, private companies and high-profile individuals.“

and notable practitioners are Arnar Þór Stefánsson and Kristín Edwald

„Arnar Þór Stefánsson handles a variety of disputes, from commercial litigation and white-collar crime matters to administrative and public law cases. He also has experience in mandates with cross-border elements.“

„Kristín Edwald possesses a broad dispute resolution practice, with experience in cases involving insurance, human rights and criminal law. She also has a varied client roster, acting for private companies, state entities and high-profile individuals.“

The Intellectual Property team is described as following:

„LEX Law Offices has an impressive practice with expertise in a range of commercial and specialist IP mandates. The department advises on issues relating to copyright infringement and the registration and protection of trade marks and designs. The law firm additionally assists with life sciences regulatory issues.“
Clients say: “The lawyers are responsive and their answers are clear and understandable.”

and notable practitioner is Erla S. Árnadóttir

„Erla Árnadóttir has a wealth of experience in trade mark portfolio management and copyright infringement cases. She also assists with GDPR compliance.“

Erla S. Árnadóttir, partner and María Kristjánsdóttir, associate at LEX and the managing director of GH Sigurgeirsson, IP boutique and subsidiary of LEX Law Offices are praised for work in the field of trademark law in the 2022 edition of the World Trademark Review (WTR 1000). LEX is considered one of the best when it comes to trademark counselling, prosecution and litigation.

„One of the best when it comes to trademark counselling,
prosecution and litigation, full-service outfit LEX Law Offices renders an all-inclusive offering to prestigious local companies and industry-leading multinationals. For example, Mjólkursamsalan, the country’s largest dairy producer, and Coca-Cola European Partners Ísland call on it for strategic portfolio management and high-level advice. The vibrant IP group is comprised of talented, collaboratively minded lawyers who are licensed to practise throughout the Icelandic court system, including at the Supreme Court, and are always willing to go the extra mile for clients. Driving the practice forward are Erla Árnadóttir and María Kristjánsdóttir. As one of the nation’s foremost experts on intellectual property, Árnadóttir capitalises on almost four decades of experience to assist brand owners in many meaningful ways. Most recently, she has been representing data destruction company Gagnaeyðing in a dispute concerning unregistered marks and managing Iceland Oil’s portfolio alongside Kristjánsdóttir. The “super-personable and professional” Kristjánsdóttir is “great to cooperate with and really easy to talk to”, according to one peer. The talented all-rounder was recently promoted to managing director of GH Sigurgeirsson IP, a prominent Icelandic IP boutique and subsidiary of LEX LawOffices.“

The Icelandic business paper Viðskiptablaðið just published an article by María Kristjánsdóttir, attorney and associate at LEX where she explains the registration requirements of trademarks. She also discusses the importance of creating a strong brand, from the outset, based on trademark law for it to be under the legal protection inherent in trademark protection

Eva Margret Ævarsdottir, attorney and advisor on sustainability and ESG at LEX Law Offices took part in panel discussions in January, at a conference hosted by Festa – Center for Sustainability, about the sustainable finance framework as Iceland is preparing for the implementation of the SFDR, EU taxonomy and CSRD. Eva Margrét recently published an article in the Icelandic business paper Viðskiptablaðið, with a summary of her input in the panel discussion.

– Photo of panel discussion – Valgarður Gíslason

María Kristjánsdóttir, attorney at LEX, will participate in a summit on brand value next Thursday, the 3rd of February. The meeting is held jointly by Brandr and the Icelandic Intellectual Property Office
The meeting is open to everyone and a recording will be accessible afterwards.

Sign up here to watch live or access a recording, so you can watch at your convenience:

There are great opportunities in value creation with professional brand development. Integrated brand management across operations is key to building up the intangible assets that companies’ image, reputation and goodwill are. Trademark protection is often a forgotten, but important, factor that is the basis of value creation.

Festa – Center for Sustainability is hosting the conference “On the right grounds” on 27 January 2022. The conference is digital and open to everyone. Eva Margrét Ævarsdóttir, attorney and advisor on sustainability and ESG at LEX, is one of the participants in a panel discussion on proposed changes in law and regulation on sustainable business and what it means for Icelandic businesses.

More information about the conference

Birgir Már Björnsson, attorney and partner at LEX, wrote an article in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið yesterday regarding cohabitation agreements. Because of how limited the rights and obligations of cohabitants are in Icelandic legislation, it may be a sensible option to make arrangements for a possible future division of property in a cohabitation agreement.

LEX has acted as local law advisor to Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, acting on behalf of its clients, on the acquisition of atNorth, the largest sustainable data center operator in Iceland.

atNorth is a leading data center platform providing renewable-only, power efficient, and cost-optimized data center hosting services to clients. Partners Group will work to transform atNorth into a major pan-Nordic provider of sustainable and efficient data center solutions.

The company’s data centers are supplied entirely by renewable power and utilize local climate conditions and heat recovery systems to provide extremely power efficient facilities. atNorth serves around 100 clients across its High Performance Compute (HPC), Enterprise, and Blockchain customer segments, including local and international blue-chip companies.

The LEX team was lead by Fanney Frímannsdóttir and Ólafur Haraldsson.

Innherji, an Icelandic news medium, published an article today by Kristinn Ingi Jónsson, lawyer and associate at LEX Law offices, where he discusses financial market rumours, their effect on the normal functioning of markets and regulations in the recent Act no. 60/2021 on measures against market fraud intended to counteract the disruptive effects of unconfirmed information.