Jurisdiction

Collective management, Exceptions and Limitations, France, Legislative process, Making available (right of), Reproduction (right of)

(Schulich School of Law )/ /1 Comment

Without much noise, France recently adopted Act Nr. 2012-287 of 1st March 2012 relating to the digital exploitation of unavailable books of the 20th century. Contrary to past initiatives from the French lawmaker, the Act does not relate to orphan works, but rather to out-of-commerce works. Or, more precisely: books. According to the explanatory memorandum…

Case Law, Infringement, Liability, Originality, United Kingdom

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UK: High Court Chancery Division, 23 March 2012, Seaton v Seddon. The members of the reggae band Musical Youth brought a case against their former solicitors with regards to the royalties due from a hit single: “Pass the Dutchie”. This song was an arrangement of another piece of music, entitled “Pass the Kouchie”. The claim in…

Distribution (right of), European Union, Exhaustion, Infringement, Jurisdiction

(Maastricht University)/ /Leave a comment

“It can be argued that the Commission looks at this type of decisions as a mandate to legislate, at least to a certain extent. The possibility of further harmonization based on a possible CJEU decision cannot therefore be ruled out.” On 29 March 2012 the Advocate General (AG) Jääskinen delivered his Opinion in Case C-5/11…

European Union, Netherlands

(CIPIL, University of Cambridge)/ /Leave a comment

In the course of the implementation of the European telecommunications package, a set of proposals has been introduced to the Dutch Telecommunications Law (Telecommunicatiewet) to safeguard an open and secure internet for the Netherlands. The proposals include a net neutrality provision (Articles 7.4a and VIb of the draft amendment), an anti-wiretapping provision (Article 11.2a of…

Collective management, Communication (right of), Italy, Making available (right of), Neighbouring rights, Remuneration (equitable)

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On 15 March 2012 the CJEU has ruled two cases where it had been asked to decide whether producers of phonograms (or the collecting society on their behalf) are entitled to obtain equitable remuneration when a user allows its clients to hear the phonogram by way of background music in a place subject to his…

Enforcement, France, Jurisdiction, Legislative process

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

In this period of French presidential campaign, the HADOPI law has become a popular and recurrent topic. Most of the candidates have expressed an opinion (more or less constant) on the future of the law (whether to amend it, replace it, abrogate it or keep it as it is). This blog is certainly not the…

Authorship, Case Law, Estonia, Jurisdiction, Ownership

(Palladium Attorneys at Law)/ /Leave a comment

Estonian Supreme Court, 7 February 2012, Case No3-2-1-155-11,  Herlitz PBS AG vs. Realister OÜ (plaintiff in the prededing proceeding). The Estonian Supreme Court found in its recent judgement in the Realister case that the presumption of authorship as laid down in the Sections 4(6) and 29(1) of the Estonian Copyright Act (hereinafter referred to as…

Case Law, Infringement, Jurisdiction, United Kingdom

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Patents Court London, 12 January 2012, Temple Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd & Nicholas John Houghton. A photograph of a red Routemaster bus travelling across Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament and the bridge shown in gray, which shares visually significant elements with the claimant’s photograph, infringes copyright, despite the fact…

Belgium, Case Law, Originality

(Marx, Van Ranst, Vermeersch & Partners)/ /1 Comment

On 26 January 2012, the Belgian Supreme Court decided to quash an appeal decision deeming that “when requiring that a work must show the stamp of the author’s personality in order to benefit from copyright protection, the judges of appeal do not validate their decision in law”. According to the Supreme Court, a literary or…

Authorship, Database right, European Union, Jurisdiction

(The University of Nottingham)/ /10 Comments

Summary & comment by Dr. Estelle Derclaye, Associate Professor and Reader in Intellectual Property law, University of Nottingham, School of Law. “The crux of the judgment comes at paragraph 42 when the court clearly states that skill and labour in the selection or arrangement of the data, even if significant, is not sufficient as such…