Jens van den Brink started his career as an attorney in 2000, after having studied law at the University of Amsterdam, King’s College London and Columbia University in New York, and having studied French in Nice.
Jens is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Media department, where he heads the media group. He specializes in media litigation. His main areas of expertise are free speech (defamation and privacy), copyright law, internet law, image rights, advertising law, games of chance and media law.
Recently, for instance, Jens has defended broadcaster PowNed in a case in which a director of Buma/Stemra was accused of corruption and film production company IDTV in two injunction proceedings that were brought against the movie ‘the Heineken Kidnapping’ by the kidnappers of beer-tycoon Alfred Heineken. He acted for artist Nadia Plesner against Louis Vuitton in a case concerning the freedom to incorporate symbols into art, for Dutch broadcaster Vara’s TV guide in a satire case and for a municipal councilor who exposed a corruption affair in the city of Delft and was sued for defamation. He also recently represented media such as Dutch national newspapers de Volkskrant, Het Parool and Spits!, broadcasters KRO, MTV and PowNed, Dutch blog GeenStijl and magazines such as Elsevier and HP De Tijd.
Jens regularly teaches courses on media law, press law, internet law and intellectual property law. He is a guest lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Post academic Newspaper Journalism course), the University of Groningen (Master Journalism), VU University Amsterdam (Post academic Internet Law course), the School for Journalism (Utrecht) and the Media Academy (Hilversum).
Jens is co-author of the International Libel & Privacy Handbook (Bloomberg, 2009), the Press Law Chronicle 2006-2009 (Mediaforum, 2009-10),the Press Law Chronicle 2009-2011 (Mediaforum, 2011-5), and editor-in-chief of the media law blog Media Report.
Jens is a member of the Complaint Committee of the Dutch Institute for Classification of Audiovisual Media (NICAM).
Twitter: @JensvandenBrink
Download the detailed profile of Jens van der Brink
Practice areas
- Intellectual property
- Media law
- Free Speech
- Advertising law
Education
- IP law and International Law, University of Amsterdam, 1998
- LL.M. with merits, King’s College London, UK, 1999 (Chevening Scholar, Stibbe Steppingstone Scholar)
- International Relations, University of Amsterdam, 1994 – 1997
- Columbia University School of Law, New York, NY, USA, 1995-96
- French language, Université de Nice, France, 1992-93
Teaching
- Media Academy, Hilversum, intellectual property law
- School for Journalism, Utrecht, lecturer in press law
- Lecturer in Internet Law (IP law; post academic education) at the VU University, Amsterdam
- Various post-graduate courses on IP, advertising, press and internet law
Professional Associations
- Dutch Copyright law association
- MLRC (Media Law Resource Centre)
- Benelux Association for trade mark and design rights
- Dutch Association for media and communication law
- IPAN (Interactive Professionals Association Netherlands)
- NICAM (Complaint Committee of the Dutch Institute for Classification of Audiovisual Media)
Recommended in:
Legal 500 EMEA 2013 – Media and Entertainment
“Kennedy Van der Laan’s media and entertainment team has ‘ excellent knowledge and a proactive attitude’, and is well known for its experience in defamation and privacy law. Jens Van den Brink acted for Telegraaf Media Groep in the high-profile copyright case against various TV broadcasters and also represented the production company IDTV in proceedings brought by the real-life kidnappers regarding The Heineken Kidnapping movie. Christien Wildeman is also recommended.”
Legal 500 EMEA 2012
“Jens van den Brink is ‘an outstanding lawyer in the field of media law and defamation; very experienced and up to date’. The team successfully represented artist Nadia Plesner in proceedings brought by Louis Vuitton.”
Chambers Europe 2012
“Jens van den Brink earns much praise for his work on defamation and privacy matters. Clients pick out his up-to-date knowledge of new and social media as a particular strength.”