United Kingdom

Authorship, CDSM Directive, Contract, Digital Single Market, European Union, France, International Agreement, United Kingdom, USA

(Potter Clarkson LLP and King's College London)/ /1 Comment

Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at the Columbia Law School Jane C. Ginsburg recently visited London, where she delivered her lecture in memory of a well-known legal scholar – Professor William (Bill) Rodolph Cornish. Described as “an intellectual property pioneer and modern legal historian”, his untimely death in January 2022 was a blow…

CDSM Directive, European Union, Fair Use, Infringement, Text and Data Mining (TDM), United Kingdom, USA

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /1 Comment

As generative machine learning (ML) systems become more mainstream, the discussion about copyright and ML input is back in the spotlight. At the heart of this discussion is the question of whether authors, creators, and other rightholders need to give permission before their works can be used as input for generative ML systems that produce…

Authorship, CJEU, European Union, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable), United Kingdom

(University of Sussex)/ /4 Comments

Children provide a unique contribution to the discourse on creativity, copyright and intellectual property. From their ability to engage with colours and sounds as babies to the rich and extensive portfolio of works they create during their school years, children are constantly engaging in the process of authorship. A systematic study on the copyright of…

NFTs, United Kingdom

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On 9 September 2022, Creative Commons issued their new FAQs on NFTs. This article provides a brief overview of the use of Creative Commons licensing in relation to NFTs based on the Creative Commons’ FAQ page linked above.   Creative Commons Licensing Most of you may well be familiar with the concept of Creative Commons…

Case Law, European Union, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable), United Kingdom

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It seems inevitable that UK copyright law will change at some stage. It increasingly appears that judges are waiting for a case which requires the inconsistencies between EU and UK copyright law to be addressed. Unfortunately, the recent decision in WaterRower v Liking [2022] EWHC 2084 (IPEC) was not that case, despite many reporting in…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), CDSM Directive, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Legislative process, Text and Data Mining (TDM), United Kingdom

(University College London) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

As previously reported, between October 2021 and January 2022 the UK Intellectual Property Office held a public consultation on the intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property laws (more specifically, copyright and patents). The outcome of the consultation is supposed to inform the government with respect to a potential legislative reform of the UK…

Case Law, Exceptions and Limitations, Infringement, Originality, United Kingdom

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Introduction The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), part of the English High Court, has ruled that copyright subsists in the character of Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter and that a character can be protected as a literary work under the UK’s closed list of copyright works ([2022] EWHC 1379 IPEC). That copyright was found to have…

Case Law, Infringement, United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /2 Comments

The UK High Court has declared that Ed Sheeran’s mega-hit “Shape of You” does not infringe copyright in Sami Switch’s lesser-known song “Oh Why” ([2022] EWHC 827 (Ch)). The case focuses on whether Ed Sheeran consciously copied Sami Switch’s chorus. Accordingly, this case is a useful example of how a court will: (1) assess the…

Case Law, Damages, Infringement, United Kingdom

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Original Beauty Technology Company Limited & others v G4K Fashion Limited & others, [2021] EWHC 3439 (Ch) The High Court has recently awarded £450,000 in damages to a successful claimant in a dispute about unregistered design rights in clothing. Unregistered design rights in the UK are a unique right that often catch designs that fall…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), CDSM Directive, CJEU, Digital Single Market, European Union, Exhaustion, Round-up, United Kingdom

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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…