©-LAW

In its 2016 decision in   GS Media , C-160/15   the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) sought to clarify under what conditions the provision of a link to a work protected by copyright made available on a third-party website (where it is freely accessible) without a licence from the relevant rightholder falls within the scope of the right of communication to the public within Article 3(1) of the   InfoSoc Directive . In its decision the CJEU held that whether linking to unlicensed content falls within or outside the scope of Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive depends – crucially – on whether the link provider has a profit-making intention or knowledge of the unlicensed character of the work linked to. This  new article of mine  - which will be published in  Common Market Law Review  - assesses the implications of the  GS Media  decision in respect of linking, and - more generally - the construction of the right of com...

Roman Holiday Vespa Italian online IP resource  Marchi & Brevetti  has just  reported  a very interesting and recent decision of the Criminal Section of the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) regarding the crime of counterfeiting within  Article 474  of the Italian Criminal Code. More specifically, it its judgment on 17 March 2017 (sentenza No 13078/2017) the Fifth Section of the Supreme Court addressed the question whether the mere reproduction of the image of a Vespa  [a well-known and iconic symbol of 'italianità', ie 'Italian-ness' and - more generally - Italian life-style]  on gadgets (eg key rings) and T-shirts  without  also the reproduction of the word 'Vespa'  [a registered trade mark]  would amount to counterfeiting.  Under Italian law counterfeiting is not just a matter of trade mark infringement  [in this case, it would be trade marks held by Piaggio, which also produces quite a lot of...

Can an injunction be sought against an access provider that would require this to block access not to a website  [as per the standard scenario]  but rather streaming servers giving unauthorised access to copyright content? Can such an injunction consist of a 'live' blocking, ie a block limited to when the relevant content is being streamed?  An application of this kind was recently and  successfully  made - for the first time as far as the UK is concerned - by the Football Association Premier League (FAPL, supported by other rightholders) against 6 main retail internet service providers (ISPs). In yesterday's decision in  FAPL v BT  [2017] EWHC 480 Ch  Arnold J concluded that the High Court has jurisdiction to make an order of the kind sought by FAPL. The law Arnold J noted at the outset how the law on copyright blocking injunctions under  s97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA)   [by which the UK transp...

MEP Therese Comodini Cachia Politico Europe (PRO version) has just   published  part   [so far only the odd pages]   of the text of the draft report that MEP Comodini Cachia is preparing on the European Commission's copyright package - including the   proposal for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market   [Katposts   here ]   - at the request of the European Parliament.  The IPKat has been able to access this part of the text of the draft report, and here are some of the most interesting proposals included therein. Press publishers' right to disappear and be replaced by a presumption of representation MEP Comodini Cachia appears willing to suggest that this proposed new  sui generis  right should be   dumped   subject to a significant re-thinking.  In particular, the draft report proposes to re-write Article 11(1) of the proposed directive as follows: "Member States shall provid...

What room does EU copyright leave for national initiatives in areas harmonised by relevant EU directives? The question of  EU preemption  (linked to, yet distinct from,  EU supremacy ) in the area of copyright is not a new one. Personally, I have been very interested in it for a while  [see  here ] , and so has been apparently the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).  A string of recent copyright decisions demonstrates a diminished tolerance on the side of the Court for diverging national solutions to copyright protection in areas for which EU harmonisation has occurred. In this sense, the search of flexibilities in EU copyright has been proving increasingly challenging ... if not a vain quest altogether.  Favouring internal market goals over pretty much anything else, the CJEU has not been shy in holding that certain national arrangements would be incompatible with EU law. In this sense, there is probably no need to recall th...