Suchergebnisse

The article provides an overview of the most important developments in the field of EU copyright law in the period 2009-2013. It points to the active role the ECJ has taken in interpreting the EU copyright directives, in particular the Information Society Directive. The article discusses the ECJ's case law covering the condition for copyright protection, the exclusive economic exploitation rights, including a full treatment of the Used Soft case, exceptions to copyright and in particular the case law on fair compensation for private copying. It argues that the ECJ's case law is consistently rooted in the objectives of primary law, notwithstanding certain weaknesses in the interpretation of substantive copyright law in detail. A brief outline of the most important legislative activities since 2009 puts the Court's case law in the overall context of the development of EU copyright in the last 5 years

The paper gives a topical overview of copyright law in the EC. Firstly, the remarkably comprehensive acquis communautaire in copyright law (with seven specific Directives in the field to date) is briefly outlined. Secondly, the growing body of ECJ case law, referring to the provisions of the Directives' copyright acquis communautaire, is described and discussed in detail. Thirdly, recent policy initiatives of the Commission, such as the planned extension of the protection term for performing artists and producers of sound recordings as well as the recent Green Book on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy are briefly discussed and critically evaluated. Ultimately, this allows to identify certain core areas of European copyright law for further harmonization or consolidation, such as the fields of copyright contract law, collective management of copyrights and the area of exceptions to copyright in their interplay with technological protection measures. On that basis, perspectives for the future are developed, namely discussing the future possibility of a genuine unification of European copyright law by way of a Community copyright regulation.

The article gives an overview of the European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) Trade Mark Case Law from 2004 to 2007. Particular attention is paid to the further development of the Community Trade Mark system; besides, judgments concerning the interpretation of the Trade Mark Directive, and in particular the interface between national trade marks and the Community trade mark system are covered. As for the ECJ's case law, a wide range of legal questions is covered. Seminal judgments have been rendered with regard to the absolute grounds for refusal, concerning in particular the problematic issues of trade mark protection for abstract colours or colour combinations and three-dimensional-shapes. In the last years, moreover, the focus of the ECJ's case law in the field of trade marks has more and more shifted from the absolute grounds for refusal to the relative grounds for refusal, and to the concepts of genuine, infringing and descriptive use. As a result, the ECJ has by now rendered leading decisions on almost all problematic and relevant issues in trade mark law. However, the author argues that although the basic concepts underpinning this case law are sound and stable, the ECJ sometimes falls short of their proper concretization and remains at a rather abstract level of legal assessment. Consequently, the author argues in favour of an even more interfering and active role of the ECJ which would certainly substantially contribute to a coherent development in the future.

On 18 June 2003 the Commission presented its Proposal for a Directive concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the Internal Market (the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive). The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive Proposal is based upon the Green Paper on European Union Consumer Protection of 2001 and the reactions to this document in the consultation process as laid down in the follow-up document of 2002. The Proposal tackles the field of unfair competition law insofar as the protection of consumers is concerned.