Category: Lithuania

Sorainen has successfully represented the Luksiu Pienine milk producer in a dispute with another Lithuanian milk processor over alleged unfair competition and trademark infringement.

According to Sorainen, Luksiu Pienine has been manufacturing the handmade “Liliputas” fermented cheese since 1958, under a Lithuanian-registered trademark. Luksio Pienne sought to prohibit a competitor from using the “Лилипут” trademark and sought damages.

Both the Vilnius Regional Court and the Lithuanian Court of Appeal ruled that the trademark had been infringed. The courts prohibited the unnamed competitor from using the Лилипут mark and ordered compensatory damages.

The Sorainen team included Partner Zygimantas Pacevicius and Counsel Stasys Drazdauskas.

SPC Legal has advised East Capital Investment on the sale of an unidentified piece of real estate in Lithuania to a group of unidentified buyers. The buyers were represented by Relegal.

According to SPC Legal, East Capital sold a “considerable” real estate asset, containing tenants, to a “group of private individuals-investors, who decided to purchase it through a special purpose vehicle dedicated for this investment.”

The SPC Legal team included Partner Povilas Karlonas and Associate Juste Adomaityte.

The Relegal team was led by Managing Attorney Vidas Rudokas.

The Vilnius office of TGS Baltic has advised the AB Avia Solutions Group on its merger with its subsidiary in Cyprus.

Founded in 2010, the Avia Solutions Group is an international aviation holding company, with over 40 subsidiaries worldwide. The group is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania and in Limassol, Cyprus, and it is established in Cyprus, the USA, the UK, Poland, Serbia, Estonia, Russia, China, Thailand, and Indonesia. The Avia Solutions Group provides plane and helicopter maintenance, aviation pilot training services, aviation IT solutions, private charter, and tourism services.

The TGS Baltic team consisted of Partner Vidmantas Drizga, Associate Partner Mantas Gofmanas, and Junior Associate Andrius Urniezius.

Walless provided Lithuanian counsel and Israel’s Barnea Jaffa Lande & Co. was lead counsel to BLender P2P Israel Ltd on its generation of a total of USD 22 million in debt financing from Eiffel Investment Group SAS and equity investment by Asia Plus Group Holdings PCL, Blumberg Capital, and the Aviv Group. Glimstedt advised Eiffel on the debt financing.

Founded in 2014, BLender is a consumer lending startup that provides individuals and businesses with a digital platform to receive and issue loans. According to Walless, the company plans to use the capital raised to facilitate expansion in Poland and the CEE. Currently, the Israel-based company operates in its home market, Lithuania, and Italy.

The Walless team consisted of Partner Gediminas Reciunas and Associate Enrika Tamasauskaite.

The Glimstedt team consisted of Partner Andrius Ivanauskas and Senior Associate Jurgita Zakarauskiene.

Fort has advised EfTEN Real Estate Fund 4 on its acquisition of the shares of the company managing the River Mall shopping center and the newly-constructed River Hall business center in Kaunas, Lithuania, from a member of the Sirin group.

The deal is reported to be the biggest real estate transaction in Kaunas in the last three years.

The total area of the shopping center is 11,200 square meters while the 5-floor business center claims 8,600 square meters. According to Fort, both host more than 30 tenants. 

The Fort team conducting legal due diligence of the target company, advising on the structure of the transaction and financing and securitization arrangements, negotiating the sale and purchase agreement, and assisting with closing included Partner Ruta Radzeviciute-Meizeraite, Senior Associate Aiste Samuilyte-Mamontove, and Associates Aurelija Grigoraviciute-Rimeisiene, Paulius Uosis, and Vadimas Maksimenka.

Walless has advised Revolut on a lease agreement with Norway’s Schage group of companies in Vilnius’s Quadrum Business City. TGS Baltic reportedly advised Schage on the deal.

According to Walless, Revolut Ltd is a UK financial technology company that offers banking services including a pre-paid debit card, currency exchange, cryptocurrency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. It signed a permanent office lease agreement and started preparing to move into its new office in the Quadrum business center, and it expects to start providing banking services, such as deposits, surplus funds insurance, and consumer loans this year.

Walless Senior Associate Akvile Mackay represented Revolut.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published TGS Baltic confirmed that it had advised Schage on the deal. The firm’s team consisted of Partner Dainius Stasiulis and Associate Partner Sandra Bliuvaite-Sulciene.

Walless has helped Simplex obtain an e-money license from the Bank of Lithuania.

Israel-based Simplex is a Fintech company that set up in Lithuania in 2017 and recently obtained its payment institution license. The company’s fraud prevention solution and AI technology blocks fraudulent users and allows legitimate users to complete payments. According to Walless, the e-money license will allow Simplex to broaden its products offering. 

The Walless team consisted of Partner Joana Baublyte-Kulviete, Associate Partner Lina Radaviciene, and Senior Associate Simona Kisunaite.

Adon Legal has helped UAB Kredito Partneris set up business operations and be placed on the list of lenders with the Bank of Lithuania.

UAB Kredito Partneris specializes in the issuance of mortgage credit.

The Adon Legal team consisted of Partner Donatas Sliora and Associate Tadas Matusevicius.

Sorainen has successfully represented insolvent credit union Taupkasė in a domain registration case.

According to Sorainen, Taupkasė (which is under the administration of Klaipedos Administratoriu Biuras) sought the acknowledgement of its right to two domain names (www.taupkase.lt and www.taupkasė.lt) registered by the former chairman of the board and for the domain registration to be transferred to it. The firm reports that “the court fully upheld our client’s claim, thus forming new case-law whereby the actions of the company’s governing bodies can be treated as fraudulent and constitute grounds for revoking domain registration.”

According to Sorainen, “one of the two domains was registered by the former chairman of the board before the union changed its name from Verslo credit union to Taupkasė and before the union registered its trademark Taupkasė. The court explained that as the founder and member of the union, the former chairman of the board was involved in the union’s activities and should have known that the union was going to change the name and apply for trademark registration. Nevertheless, he registered the domain in his own name. The court found that the former chairman of the board had fraudulent intent when registering and using the domain, and based on that cancelled the domain registration. The second domain was registered after the union changed its name and registered the trademark Taupkasė. The court ruled that the rights to it were protected by the union’s registered name and trademark.”

The Sorainen team was led by Partner Kestutis Svirinas and Senior Associate Kazimieras Karpickis.

This is the third successful result for Taupkasė Sorainen has reported recently, following a case regarding whether a share can be recognized as a deposit  and a dispute with employees over the amount of downtime pay and termination compensation they are due (both reported by CEE Legal Matters on July 10, 2019).

Sorainen Lithuania has advised telecommunications company Bite Lietuva on the implementation of a new employee motivation system.

According to Sorainen, under the new system Bite will put an extra EUR 250,000 each year towards the third-step pension savings accounts of their employees.

Sorainen advised Bite Lietuva on legal issues related to its contract with pension fund company INVL Asset Management, drafting agreements with employees, and its internal policies, among other things.

The Sorainen team consisted of Partner Augustas Klezys and Senior Associates Agniete Venckiene, Dalia Augaite, and Rasa Mikutiene.