©-LAW

Is there gift more memorable than a blocking injunction? What has been the most significant IP development in the UK this year?  From a policy standpoint (and in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum) the answer is probably the decision of UK Government to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement  [ here ] .  From a practical perspective, however, also considering the increasing number of IP infringements occurring online  [this is a general trend: see  here , at p 33]  the most significant domestic development in my opinion has been the  judgment  of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in  Cartier   [ here ,  here ,  here ] , which upheld the 2014  decision  of Arnold J  [ here  and  here ] , and confirmed that  owners of IP rights other than copyright can seek injunctions against intermediaries to block access to website where counterfeits are available. The UK frame...

Kat-awards day! With the holidays on us and end of the year quickly approaching, it seems about time to think of what has been and what will be next in the constantly exciting world of copyright. Over the past three years  [ here ,  here ,  here ] , I have reviewed  [in a completely arbitrary and EU-obsessed fashion, of course]  the copyright year, and award a number of  [symbolic]  prizes to the most relevant developments occurred during that year.  Once again, it seems that in 2016 Europe has been a never-a-dull-moment kind of place copyright-wise, with a couple of notable exceptions. So here we go: Most important copyright decision " GS Media ,  for sure!" many would say. Although the latest instalment  [Katposts  here ]  from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its own linking&copyright saga is an important one with significant implications, it does not get the prize.  The ...

A little more than a year ago this blog  reported  that a new reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had been filed by the R echtbank Midden-Nederland (District Court, Central Netherlands, Netherlands).  Background This reference  [ Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems, acting under the name of Filmspeler , C-527/15]  had arisen in the context of litigation between Dutch anti-piracy organisation  Stichting Brein  and Jack Frederik Wullems over the sale, by the latter and through - among other things - his site www.filmspeler.nl, of various models of a multimedia player under the name ‘ filmspeler ’.  Filmspeler is a player for connecting a source of image and/or sound signals to a television screen. If the multimedia player is connected to the internet, on the one hand, and to a user’s screen (for example, a television screen), on the other, the user is able to...

Trying to understand newly proposed VAT rules Can VAT rules have any implications for ... copyright? Yesterday - as part of its  Digital Single Market Strategy  - the EU Commission unveiled proposals for  new tax rules  with the objective of supporting e-commerce and online businesses in the EU. Among the measures proposed, there is one that may be of interest also from a copyright perspective.  New VAT rules for e-publications The Commission proposed in fact to apply the same VAT rate to e-publications, eg e-books and online newspapers, as for their printed equivalents, thus  removing provisions that excluded e-publications from the favourable tax treatment allowed for traditional printed publications. As explained in the relevant  proposal , a ccording to the  VAT Directive  electronically supplied services including electronically supplied publications have to be taxed at the standard VAT rate (minimum 15%). On the other hand, Me...