Rik Nierop is an attorney-at-law and expert in advertising law and intellectual property rights (IP), part of De Roos since 2019. He serves as a trusted advisor for impact-driven companies, key activist- organizations, and individuals.

As an advertising law expert, Rik has an extensive track record of procedures before the Advertising Standards Committee (Reclame Code Commissie), focusing on greenwashing. He frequently leads complaint procedures against greenwashing advertisements and helps honest companies navigate sustainability legislation - to combat "greenhushing."

In the field of intellectual property, Rik's practice focuses on innovative companies and the creative industry. He advises on IP aspects of software development, works of art, design, branding, know-how, corporate structuring, intercompany licensing, and third-party licensing. His goal is to ensure that organizations and individuals effectively protect their intellectual property rights and adequately license third-party rights.

As a former corporate lawyer involved in numerous transactions of various sizes (from the sale of Signrequest to Box to the public listing of The Kingfish Company), Rik is well-versed in due diligence processes and is regularly the lead IP attorney in M&A transactions for our firm.

Notable Recent Cases:

• 2022/00337 for Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth): Defense against a complaint regarding a Milieudefensie radio advertisement “Het weerbericht van de toekomst”.
• 2023/00091 vs. Shell: Complaint on behalf of Reclame Fossielvrij against Shell's "CO2-compensated gas" advertisement, with a parallel complaint filed in the UK before the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) also on behalf of New Weather Institute.
• 2023/00189 for Milieudefensie: Defense against a complaint regarding a Milieudefensie TV commercial “De laatste aanmoediging”. 
• 2023/00294 vs. Arla: Complaint on behalf of Stichting Even Geen Vlees against Arla and retailers (AH, PLUS, JUMBO) regarding their "climate neutral" claims. 
• 2023/00301 vs. Primark: Complaint procedure, including defense against appeal, for fast-fashion activist Sara Dubbeldam against Primark, featured in the Tegenlicht documentary "Uit de kleren" (see: VPRO Tegenlicht). 
• 2023/00346 vs. Shell: Appeal on behalf of activist Jilt Sietsma in a complaint procedure against Shell's "We are changing for a cleaner future" campaign.

Other Work Examples:

• Advising on handling complaint proceedings as an advertiser. 
• Assessing the compliance of sustainability claims and providing tailored advice to mitigate risk and align external claims with actual activities/performance.
• Evaluating the legal status of IP relevant to a client's business (chain of title assessments & contract analysis) and providing steps to correct unwanted IP ownership allocations or insufficient inbound licenses. 
• Advising on and implementing IP structuring, and drawing up intercompany license structures. 
• Advising on or taking action against infringements of copyrights, trademarks, and related rights. 
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating (license) agreements, SaaS documentation, SLAs, IT contracts, and software development contracts with a focus on IP aspects.
• Providing strategic advice on online derivatives trading in music rights.

Practice areas:
Rik has registered intellectual property law as his legal practice area in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister), which requires one to obtain ten training credits annually in the registered legal practice area, in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.