CJEU

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is an institution of the European Union (EU).  It is responsible, inter alia, for ensuring that EU law is interpreted and applied in a consistent way in all EU countries.  If a national court is in doubt about the interpretation or validity of an EU law, it can ask the Court for clarification.  The same mechanism can be used to determine whether a national law or practice is compatible with EU law.  The CJEU also resolves legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions, and can take action against EU institutions on behalf of individuals, companies or organisations.

AG Opinion, Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

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The relation between freedom of expression and copyright in the EU is one of imprecision and uncertainty. In Funke Medien (Case C-469/17) the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) asks whether fundamental rights should permit the unauthorized use of military reports in the absence of an applicable copyright exception. In his Opinion, Advocate General (AG) Szpunar…

AG Opinion, Case Law, CJEU, Distribution (right of), European Union, Infringement, Sweden

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The right of distribution is the least controversial of the three exclusive rights contained in the Information Society Directive (InfoSoc Directive). Yet, every now and then the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is asked to re-examine its scope. With far less interpretative imagination compared with the right of communication to the public,…

Case Law, CJEU, Digital Single Market

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As discussed in Part I of this blogpost, the CJEU in Renckhoff was called, once again, to analyse the application of copyright in relation to the use of copyright-protected works on the Internet. The Renckhoff judgment is, therefore, another addition to the complex European copyright case law construction. To date, the often tailor-made jurisprudential solutions…

CJEU, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Originality

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The delimitation of the proper boundaries of lawful use of copyright-protected works on the Internet has always been puzzling for courts, which in some instances have creatively interpreted the copyright acquis in order to take account of the particularities of the digital ecosystem. In this context, the CJEU in Usedsoft (C-128/11) adopted for the first…

AG Opinion, Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(IViR)/ /2 Comments

25 July 2018 marks a new episode in the Heks’nkaas saga. After tumultuous court proceedings at the national level and before the European Court of Justice, Advocate General M. Wathelet delivered his opinion in this controversial copyright dispute that is now pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). His opinion can…

CJEU, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process, Liability

(Franklin Pierce Center for IP, Univ. of NH)/ /1 Comment

In the run-up to the Plenary vote of the European Parliament in June and again currently, some academics and other voices have criticized the JURI Committee Report especially on Article 13 of the Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Among others, they purport that these proposals would contravene the acquis…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Netherlands, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

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On 4 June 2018, one of the core concepts of copyright – the copyright work – was disputed at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The “cheese battle”, which started in 2015 at the Court of First Instance in Gelderland (the Netherlands) between HEKS’NKAAS (applicant) and ‘Witte Wievenkaas’ (defendant), resulted in a…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Infringement

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Sampling is a technique used in the music industry which utilises parts of pre-existing recordings in order to create a new music composition. Although sampling has been a common practice and a widely-used method in many modern music productions, its legality under EU law is still to be determined. From the perspective of European copyright…