Have you ever given an idea to a friend, who then weaved that idea into their work? Did you feel that you should be recognised for your idea being included even though what you contributed was rather high level? Two weeks ago, in the UK judgment Nicholas Martin v Julia Kogan [2017] EWHC 2927 (IPEC),…

A photographer took a portrait of a lawyer, who subsequently published the portrait in numerous newspaper articles. A lawsuit was initiated by an association enforcing the rights of the photographer. The photographer had sent the picture to the lawyer in JPEG-format. In the IPTC-metadata of the file (thus data which contain information about other data),…

The Spanish Supreme Court has recently ruled on the concept of originality in respect of architectural works, and for the first time has established clear and specific guidelines for applying copyright protection to works of this nature. The situation which gave rise to the proceedings is very common in the architectural sector. An architect (the…

A full report of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law. In this interesting case, the Supreme Court of Estonia examined whether the answers given by the claimant in the framework of an interview are works protectable by copyright. Section 4(6) of the Copyright Act stipulates that the protection of a work by…

A full report of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law. Article L.113-3 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the French Intellectual Property Code (‘IPC’) provides that a work of collaboration shall be the joint property of its authors, and that joint authors shall exercise their rights by common consent. The decisions relating to…

The Labour Chamber of the French Supreme Court has reaffirmed that under Article L.111-1 paragraph 3 of the French Intellectual Property Code (‘IPC’), a labour agreement entered into with the author of a work shall in no way derogate from the general rule, under which the author is the first creator. Therefore, in default of…

A report published by the EnDOW project on the “Requirements for Diligent Search in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy” confirms what everyone suspected all along: the diligent search mechanism set up by the Orphan Works Directive is too cumbersome to lead to useful results. Consequently, the status of works held by cultural heritage…

The Supreme Administrative Court held that pursuant to § 2, para. 9 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights (LCRR), permanent objects that represent the synthesis between architecture and other arts should be regarded as works of architecture. Under Article 12, para. 2 of the LCRR, copyright in a work of architecture, created after…

The court held that the applicable law is determined by the lex loci protectionis (Schutzlandprinzip), therefore the question of authorship in Switzerland is determined by the Swiss “creator’s principle”, not the British principle of “work for hire“.  Where it is claimed that there has been a parallel creation, inspired by elements in the public domain…

The Polish Supreme Court held that the use of elements of a work of authorship, which are widely known and available (in the public domain), in another work in which those elements were combined in a different way, constitutes an expression of individual creative thought, and cannot therefore be regarded as an infringement of copyright…