E-commerce Directive: does not preclude the application of national rules of civil liability for defamation

Patent Law: An unfertilized human ovum that does not have the inherent capacity of developing into a human being, does not constitute a ‘human embryo’ according to Article 6(2)(c) of the Biotechnical Inventions Directive

Copyright - Parody: must be regarded as an autonomous concept of EU law and must strike a fair balance between the interests and rights of the holder of the creator of the work and the freedom of expression

Copyright - Embedding a copyright protected work on a website through framing technology cannot be considered as ‘communication to the public’ according Art. 3(1) 2001/29/EC, as long as the copyright protected work is not communicated to a new public, nor communicated by technical means that differ from the technical...

Trade Mark Law. Concept ‘shape which results from the nature of the goods themselves’ does not only apply to signs which consist exclusively of shapes which are indispensable to the function of the goods in question, but also to signs which consists exclusively of the shape of a product with one or more essential...

Trade Mark Law - Services: bringing together services so that the consumer can conveniently compare and purchase them may come within the concept of ‘services’ ex art. 2 Trade Marks Directive. Formulation of trade mark: formulation of application for service of the bringing together must be clear and precise so as to...

Copyright: The concept 'purchase of licensing terms'in Article 5(3)(n) Copyright Directive includes that the concept of 'purchase or licensing terms' provided for in Article 5(3)(n) of Directive 2001/29 must be understood as requiring that the rightholder and an establishment, such as a publicly accessible library...

Trade Mark Law - Layout of a store: presentation which depicts the layout of a store may constitute a trade mark, even if it does not contain any indication of the sizes and proportions of the presentation. Registration: also legitimate for services that do not form an integral part of the offer for sale of those goods...

Neighbouring rights: Appeal gainst decision of Council of European Union admissible. Annulment decision of the Council of the EU on the participation of both EU and Member States to negotiate on the Convention Council of Europe about the protection of neighbouring rights from broadcasters.

Patent-ineligible abstract ideas: This Court must distinguish patents that claim the “‘buildin[g] block[s]’” of human ingenuity, which are ineligible for patent protection, from those that integrate the building blocks into something more. Using this framework, the Court must first determine whether the claims at issue...

Trade Mark Law - Distinctive character through integration of contourless colour marks cannot be determined solely based on consumer survey with a degree of recognition of at least 70%. Invalidity: trade mark kan be declared invalid when proprietor fails to show that distinctive character was acquired prior to...

Design Law - Individual character:  must not be evaluated on the basis of a combination of isolated features from a number of earlier designs, but by one or more individually considered earlier designs and is not required to be proven by the right holder.

Copyright - Acts of reproduction: when viewing website in terms of on-screen copies and cached copies of a temporary nature and when viewing website is integral and essential part of technological process.

Trade Mark Law  - International Private Law - Jurisdiction: community trade mark regulation does not allow jurisdiction to be established to hear an infringement action against the original seller who did not himself act in the Member State where the court seised is situated

Trade mark Law - Independant distinctive role: purpose of examining whether any of the components of a composite sign has an independent distinctive role is to determine which of those components will be perceived by the target public

Geographical Indications:  Council Regulation on the protection of geographical indications and designations of agricultural products and foodstuffs does not preclude additional national protection regulations, if these regulations do not undermine the objectives pursued by the principles of Regulation No 2081/92 and...

Trade Mark Law: Safener must be interpreted as ‘product’ and ‘active substances’ in ABC-Vo if the substance has a toxic, phytotoxic or plant protection action of its own.

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...

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.

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