Copyright - Litigation - Strict interpretation of exceptions precludes liability for copyright holders to tolerate rights violations which may involve the making of private copies, private copy exception does not cover private copies made from an unlawful source. National legislation that makes no distinction between...

Privacy Law - Data Retention Directive invalid: it has exceeded the limits imposed by compliance with the principle of proportionality

Customs Seizure - Customs authorities may initiate proceedings to determine whether there has been an infringement of an intellectual property right under national law and may determine whether there has been an infringement of an intellectual property right, if the relevant decisions are subject to appeal.

Private International Law - Litigation - A court of Member State within which damage is caused, where supposed perpetrator did not act, has jurisdiction only to rule on damage cause within territory of Member State to which it belongs

Trade Mark Law - General Court is allowed to obtain information ex officio about  the content, conditions and scope of application by the applicant of the annulment of invoked national rules. General Court infringed adversary proceeding by basing judgment on national law and  not putting the parties in a position to...

Copyright - Neighbouring Rights - ISP's: A person who makes protected subject-matter available to the public on a website without the agreement of the rightholder, is using the services of the internet service provider of the persons accessing that subject-matter

Advertising Law - Misleading advertising and unlawful comparative advertising are two independent infringements. Divergence between languages: where there is a divergence between various language versions of a European Union text, the provisions in question must be interpreted by reference to the general scheme and the...

Privacy -  Processing personal data by operator of search engine in searchresults. The operator of this search engine is responsible for the processing: he determines the purposes and means of that activity. Processing of the personal data of a search engine is carried out in the context of activities of the...

Copyright - Communication to the public by providing access to works via television and radio devices in rooms of spa establishment.

Copyright - Provision of clickable links is an act of communication: making it available to indeterminate and fairly large number of recipients. No act of communication to new public when clickable links provide direct access to original site; users deemed to be part of the public taken into account during initial...

Litigation - Geographical Indications - Any measures adopted by the institutions of the European Union which are intended to have binding legal effects, are actionable measures (article 263 TFEU). Automatic registration  by European Commission of already protected wine names in E-Bacchusdatabase does not establish...

Patent Law - Litigation - Tribunal Arbitral necessário must be considered to be a court or tribunal for the purposes of article 267 TFEU. SPC: validity of SPC is no longer than 15 years from the first MA in the European Union.

Design Law - Litigation -  Distribution of images of a design to traders operating in the involved sector in the Union can be sufficient to be known in the course of business to the circles specialized in the sector concerned. Burden of proving: holder of protected design must bear the burden of proving that the...

Customs Seizure - Council Regulation 1383/2003: affords protection over goods sold through an online sales website in a non-member country from the moment that the goods enter the territory of the Member State, irrespective of whether the goods were subject of an offer for sale or advertising targeting consumers of...

Trade Mark Law - Due cause: may also relate tot the subjective interest of a third party using a sign which is identical or similar to the mark with a reputation and is intended is intended to strike a balance between the interest in question, not to resolve a conflict between a mark with reputation and a similar sign...

Trade Mark Law - Likelihood of confusion: if it is determined that marks are not similar and the likelihood of confusion is therefore excluded, increased distinctiveness as a result of the use of earlier marks cannot not offset the lack of similarity between the marks at issue.

Copyright - Videogame: complex matter comprised of computer program and graphic and sound elements. Legal protection against circumventing technological measures: only applies in the light of protecting the rightholder against acts which require his authorization. A “technological measure” can also include...

Trade Mark Law - When examining whether a sign consists exclusively of the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result, the competent authority may take into account the actual use made of the trade mark following its registration.  

Trade Mark Law - Common name: Becoming a common name for end users of that product can be sufficient ground for revocation of a trade mark. The fact that the proprietor of a trade mark does not encourage sellers to make more use of a trade mark in marketing a product may be classified as ‘inactivity’ by the proprietor...

Database Rights - Re-utilisation of whole or substantial part of database by dedicated meta engine: when the end user is given the opportunity to use a form that indirectly uses data from a database protected under article 7.