Country snapshot, Jakob Widner, October 2015

The Supreme Court recently ruled on whether and how an employer can request that employees submit to alcohol testing. The court qualified the employer´s unannounced breathalyser tests as a control…

In a recent case a high-profile trademark consisting of a famous family name was infringed through use in the course of trade by someone with the same family name. The…

Insolvency lawyers frequently encounter problems in relation to goods that are purchased under a reservation of title and the assertion of resulting rights to separate these goods from the debtor´s…

For decades it was settled case law that compensating (or promising to compensate) a new hire for contractual penalties owed by the employee to his or her former competitor employer…

In line with the EU Transfer of Undertakings Directive, share sales do not trigger the works council´s information or consultation rights. However, the provisions transposing the EU directive into Austrian…

If an insolvency petition is filed too late and creditors incur damage because of it, the responsible managing director may be held liable. However, in practice, companies are often actually…

In a recent decision the Supreme Court had to consider whether activities performed during an employee´s sick leave that would not typically be regarded as adequate conduct were acceptable. The…

In order to facilitate the formation of LLCs, the Tax Amendment Act 2014 introduced a formation privilege in the Limited Liability Companies Act, which reduces shareholders´ risk capital from €35,000…

The Supreme Patent and TradeMark Board (SPTB) clarified the status of program logic-a category of invention under s 1(2) of the Utility Model Act-under Austrian law by ruling that it…