Subject matter (copyrightable)

AG Opinion, Belgium, Case Law, CJEU, Design Rights, European Union, Infringement, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(The University of Nottingham)/ /Leave a comment

This case concerned the famous Brompton bicycle which can be folded to carry away after use (Case C‑833/18, SI, Brompton Bicycle Ltd. v. Chedech / Get2Get). The bike was once protected by a patent and, following its expiry, the defendant (Chedech/Get2Get) embarked on selling a similar bike in Belgium (the designs of the two bikes…

Case Law, Infringement, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable), United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In Response Clothing Ltd v The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ltd [2020] EWHC 148, His Honour Judge Hacon (“HHJ Hacon”) found that copyright subsisted in a fabric design as a work of artistic craftmanship and that the sale of garments made from such fabric amounted to copyright infringement. The case is an interesting development in English law…

Case Law, Infringement, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable), United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent UK High Court decision Charlotte Tilbury was able to claim artistic copyright in two designs subsisting in its Starlight Palette make-up palette and successfully prove infringement by Aldi and its lookalike palette. In a rare move for infringements of this nature, the court gave summary judgment on the view that Aldi had…

Case Law, Fair Use, Software, Subject matter (copyrightable), USA

(Berkeley Law School)/ /Leave a comment

In January 2018, Google filed a petition to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review two adverse rulings by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the Oracle Am. Inc. v. Google Inc. case. The first was the Federal Circuit’s 2014 decision overturning a district court ruling that several thousand declarations that Google…

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

(Elzaburu)/ /Leave a comment

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on a series of questions referred by the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Appeals Court (Netherlands), relating to the possible copyright protection of the taste of a cheese product. The CJEU confirmed that the concept of a “work” provided for in Directive 2001/29 requires the existence of an external…

Case Law, Infringement, Originality, Spain, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(Elzaburu)/ /Leave a comment

The Madrid Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal filed by the owners of a figurative mark whose central element is a radiant heart, drawn using thick black lines and coloured in red, this being used by the defendants to market numerous articles and souvenirs sold in many shops in Madrid. The Court upheld the first…

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

, (Bugnion S.p.A)/ /Leave a comment

In law, perhaps one of the most famous aphorisms is “I know it when I see it”, which Justice Potter Stewart used to describe his threshold test for obscenity (in Jacobellis v. Ohio,  378 U.S. 184 (1964)). The CJEU, in case C‑310/17, delivered a decision on copyright which in a way confirms this aphorism and…

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

(IViR)/ /Leave a comment

On 13 November 2018, the CJEU clarified the scope of EU copyright law by excluding works of taste from copyright protection. This marks the end of a three-year long dispute, which arose in 2015 between two cheese producers and was based on the idea that the taste of a food product is copyright protected. In…

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

(University College Dublin)/ /Leave a comment

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, 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…