Exhaustion refers to one of the limits of intellectual property (IP) rights, such as copyright. Once a product covered by an IP right has been marketed by the right owner or by others with the consent of the owner, the IP rights of commercial exploitation over this given product are said to be exhausted and can no longer be exercised by the owner.
This two-part blog looks at the provisions that exist in library laws across European countries concerning the building of collections and what libraries can do with them. It then assesses how far the achievement of these mandated functions is frustrated by a lack of access to e-books. The first part of this blog provided…
This two-part blog looks at the provisions that exist in library laws across European countries concerning the building of collections and what libraries can do with them. It then assesses how far the achievement of these mandated functions is frustrated by a lack of access to eBooks. This first part introduces the issue and covers…
The concept of lawfulness in relation to user status or user acts has been gradually established in EU digital copyright law as a condition for the enjoyment of certain copyright exceptions. However, the concept has proliferated inconsistently, lacking a clear normative content and shape. There is variant terminology: “lawful acquirer of a computer program” or…
On 23 October 2024, the five-year dispute between Valve and UFC-Que Choisir has come to a close. With the French Supreme Court upholding the Paris Court of Appeal’s decision, and ruling that consumers cannot resell digital copies of videogames distributed online. Putting the final seal on the question of digital exhaustion in France, and ending…
As the environmental crisis escalates due to overproduction and overconsumption, there is an increasing recognition of the urgent need for environmental consciousness and a shift towards a sustainable, circular economy (see, in the intellectual property context, Pihlajarinne & Ballardini (2020), Senftleben (2023), Calboli (2024)). Upcycling, notably, which involves reworking old items or their parts into…
Over the last decades, European lawyers got used to the – at times remarkable and even forceful – interventions of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in copyright law. But last year, one supranational interference with copyright law surprisingly did not come from Luxemburg, but from Strasbourg: the judgment in Safarov v Azerbaijan….
Free spaces in copyright law are fundamental. They allow us to use and enjoy copyright works, ultimately supporting the creation of future works. Yet, since the Information Society Directive, European copyright law has preferred to protect and incentivise online business models over creativity. This post reflects on the role of exploiters, namely copyright holders with…
Part I of this blog introduced the first of three ambiguities NFT purchasers may face. In this part II we discuss two additional aspects, with a focus on UK copyright law and the EU copyright acquis. The First Sale Doctrine in the Metaverse The first sale doctrine, also referred to as the ‘principle of…
A conference jointly organized by the Department of Law of the University of Cyprus and the H2020 project reCreating Europe – Nicosia, 31 October – 1 November 2022 The University of Cyprus, together with the Horizon 2020 project reCreating Europe, funded by the European Commission, is conveying the conference “Rethinking copyright flexibilities”. The…
Welcome to the first trimester of the 2022 round up of EU copyright law! We started this rubric back in 2021. In this series, we update readers every three months on developments in EU copyright law. This includes Court of Justice (CJEU) and General Court judgments, Advocate Generals’ (AG) opinions, and important policy developments. You…
