Freedom of Expression - Delfi’s liability for hateful comments posted by third parties no breach of Article 10 ECHR. The Court takes into account that the news portal was professionally managed, that Delfi did not take sufficient measures to remove the comments and that only a moderate sanction had been imposed on the...

Unfair Commercial Practices - It has to be assumed that consumers read the list of ingredients of the product before purchase.The presence of a list of ingredients does not in itself exclude the possibility that the labelling is misleading. Directive 2000/13 precludes misleading labelling, even though the actual...

Copyright - the exclusive rights of broadcasting organizations as referred to in Article 3(2)(d) of the Copyright Directive can be expanded to live sports events on the internet, if it does not affect the protection of copyright.

Plant Variety Rights - the General Court wrongly held that the principle of examination of the facts by the CPVO of its own motion also applies in proceedings before the Board of Appeal. No lead to the setting aside of the judgment: The General Court, non the less checked of the judgment under appeal whether the...

Trade Mark Law - purely descriptive element does not preclude from being acknowledged as dominant for the purposes of assessing the similarity of the signs at issue.

Copyright - a holder of an exclusive right to distribute is allowed to prohibit offers for sale or  targeted advertisement, even if it is not established that the advertisement gave rise to the purchase of that protected work by an EU buyer, in so far as that advertisement invited EU consumers to purchase it.

Patent law - SPC: if a basic patent includes a claim to a product comprising an active ingredient which constitutes the sole subject-matter of the invention,  that provision precludes the holder from obtaining a second supplementary protection certificate for that combination.

Trade Mark Law - Shape mark for beverages: that the EGC would have considered that trade mark that is made up only of components which are not devoid of distinctive character in relation to the goods concerned generally leads to the conclusion that that trade mark, taken as a whole, is devoid of distinctive character.

Patent Law - The Regulation Unitary Patent Translation Arrangements has a legitimate aim: the translations arrangements make the access to the unitary patent and patent system as a whole easier, it is cheaper and ensures legal certainty. Since it is not required to translate a patent in an official language of a State...

Patent Law - Unitary Patent Law: Administrative procedure preceding unitary patent protection is compatible with EU law: only establishes unitary effect on patents granted under the EPC. Regulation can be based on article 118(1) TFEU which is apt to prevent divergences in terms of patent protection and, accordingly...

Unfair Commercial Practices - Communication, by a professional to only one single consumer, of erroneous information is a ‘misleading commercial practice’. If there is a misleading practice it is not necessary to determine whether such a practice is also contrary to the requirements of professional diligence.

Patent Law - Allowable product claim directed to plants or plant material such as plant parts or fruits. Fact that only an essentially biological process or a product-by-process claim is available for the claimed subject matter (other than plant varieties) does not make the claims unallowable.

Notice of Oppossition: the holder of a patent or SPC is not required to give notification of his intention to oppose a proposed importation before invoking his rights under the first paragraph of the mechanism from the 2003 Act of Accession to the European Union.

Advertising law. Question for a preliminary ruling concerning nutrition and health claims in communications exclusively addressed to the professional sector. Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods.

Patent Law - When considering if an amended patent meets the requirements of article 101(3) EPC, the patent claims may be examined for compliance with of Article 84 EPC only when, and then only to the extent that the amendment introduces non-compliance with Article 84 EPC.

Rule of Exhaustion: no exhaustion when a  protected work, after having been marketed in the European Union with the copyright holder’s consent, has undergone an alteration of its medium, such as the transfer of that reproduction from a paper poster onto a canvas, and is placed on the market again in its new form

Database Rights: does not preclude the author of the database from laying down contractual limitations on its use by third parties

Indication of final price: In a computerised booking system, the final price to be paid must be indicated whenever the prices of air services are shown, not only for the air service specifically selected by the customer, but also for each air service in respect of which the fare is shown

Copyright - Article 5(2)(b) Copyright Directive does not preclude legislation for fair compensation in respect of multifunctional media such as mobile telephone memory cards, irrespective of whether the main function of such media is to make such copies, provided that one of the functions of the media enables the...

International Private Law - Copyright: Court of a Member State wherein an allegedly infringing website can be consulted has jurisdiction on the basis of the place where the damage occurred. Seised court has jurisdiction only in regard of damage caused in own Member State.