Although the defendant had allegedly illegally used the claimant’s software on only three days (over a period of two months), the court found it justifiable to award monetary damages in an amount equal to the standard yearly licence and maintenance fees for this software. The court held that this was the “normal” fee the defendant would have been obliged to pay if the licence had been legally acquired. The claimant did not offer any licences to this software for a shorter period of time than one year. According to the court, as the author is exclusively entitled to decide upon the purpose, term, territory, extent, manner and means of use of the work, the author is entitled to decide upon the type and term of the licence.
Case date: 14 February 2019
Case number: 2-18-4893
Court: County Court of Harju
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
________________________
To make sure you do not miss out on regular updates from the Kluwer Copyright Blog, please subscribe here.
