On 9 March 2019, the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications published its report on “Regulating in a digital World”. It included a number of recommendations to the government, including 10 guiding principles for the development of regulation online, a new public interest test for data driven mergers and a new Digital Authority, to oversee regulation of the digital … Continue Reading
On 27 and 28 March, our global IP team will take a look at some of the emerging opportunities and risks for brand owners exploring opportunities in the esports market: from innovative advertising and marketing activities during tournaments and within games, sponsorship of tournaments or teams, to merchandise and fan items (see earlier post here). Esports refers … Continue Reading
Drama at the European Parliament: whoever thought the dispute within the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) around the adoption of a new regulation dealing with online transmissions by broadcasters and retransmissions (COM(2016) 594 final) could not become more exciting when JURI voted on its final report at the end of November, was wrong. The rapporteur Tiemo Wölken made … Continue Reading
On 29 November 2017, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) handed down a decision on a video recording service that stores TV programmes online in a cloud (C-265/16 – VCAST). According to the Court, the cloud recording service has a dual function that enables its users to create reproductions on the one hand but also makes copyright protected … Continue Reading
On 6 July 2017, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) confirmed a decision of the Paris court of appeal dated 15 March 2016 (RG No. 040/2016) which held that Internet intermediaries must bear the costs for implementing blocking measures against illegal streaming websites.
Legal background
Article L. 336-2 of the French intellectual property Code (“IPC”) allows … Continue Reading
Instagram recently rolled out a new feature to a select group of its users who use the social media platform for promotional purposes. This tool allows influential users to add a new subheading to posts that reads “Paid partnership with…” It is designed to help users clearly and conspicuously tag the brand that sponsors a post. The announcement comes just … Continue Reading
DSM Watch has been tracking this, the first legislative proposal published by the Commission under the Digital Single Market strategy banner, since back in December 2015. The Commission’s aim was to allow consumers who pay for online content services in their home country to access them when visiting another country within the EU.… Continue Reading
There is no end in sight regarding CJEU decisions on the meaning of “communication to the public“. On 26 April 2017, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled (C-527/15 – Filmspeler) that the sale of a multimedia player with pre-installed add-ons that contained links to illegal streaming websites constitutes a copyright infringement. At the same time, … Continue Reading
On 8 September 2016, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) handed down judgment C-160/15 on the means of hyperlinking which caught quite some attention. It has become known as the GS Media decision (see our blog post). In essence, this CJEU judgment imposed new verification duties on commercial website owners who embed hyperlinks to third-party content in their web … Continue Reading
The US Copyright Act of 1976 allows artists, writers, and musicians to “get back” grants of copyrights that had been previously licensed or assigned away. Specifically, artists can “terminate” their copyright arrangements simply by serving notice upon the grantee between 46 and 59 years after the date that the rights were granted. This means that, for the hit songs of … Continue Reading
On November 7, 2016, the People’s Republic of China’s highest legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, passed the Film Industry Promotion Law (Film Law). The Film Law takes effect on March 1, 2017.
The Film Law is the first comprehensive “law” in China targeting the film industry specifically and is more than 13 years … Continue Reading
Is it permitted to reproduce out-of-commerce works and make them publicly accessible under European copyright exceptions? So far, there is no explicit regulation at European level dealing with out-of-commerce works. However, a few member states, including Germany, have already complemented their copyright by way of introduction of new provisions governing the use that one can make of out-of-stock works. In … Continue Reading
On 10 November 2016, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) rendered a landmark decision on the lending of e-books. Public libraries may rely on statutory copyright exceptions when lending out e-books and are not required to obtain a contractual license explicitly covering such e-lending right. With its decision, the CJEU applies the same legal principles to e-books that already govern … Continue Reading
Guests entering hotel rooms expect to be able to turn on the TV or listen to the radio. Accordingly, TVs and radios feature in almost any hotel room around the world. However, this commodity has been the trigger for numerous legal disputes in recent years. As always, the quarrel is about money.
In this post we look at proceedings which … Continue Reading
A recent decision by India’s telecom regulator to prohibit differential charges for Internet content – which effectively blocked Facebook from offering its Free Basics service in the country – highlights how regulators around the globe continue to work through whether and how “zero-rating” data services may be permissible under their country’s net neutrality framework. Zero-rating services allow consumers to access … Continue Reading
On 4th November, together with Santa Clara University’s High Tech Law Institute and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, we hosted our second Law in the Global Marketplace symposium on Intellectual Property and related issues.
Topics covered thought-provoking issues concerning global aspects of intellectual property law, including the impact of patent reform in the EU and U.S. on international … Continue Reading
In today’s world, copyright works and related rights form the cornerstone for numerous services and products. Of course, the entire media and broadcasting sector is reliant on copyright protection, as are the software, music and publishing industries. But, copyright protected content is at stake in many more industries such as IT, luxury goods, education and research. Taking into account that … Continue Reading
Emerging technologies. Rapidly evolving markets. Changing regulatory frameworks. Businesses around the globe are affected by these influences and intellectual property (IP) plays a central role. On 4th November, Hogan Lovells, Santa Clara University’s High Tech Law Institute, and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology are bringing together the IP industry’s thought leaders to discuss these issues and start a … Continue Reading
On July 10, 2015 the Court of Rome issued a very important decision in favor of Wikimedia Foundation (the organization managing the online encyclopedia Wikipedia), represented by Hogan Lovells, in relation to the Foundation’s lack of liability for the content created by its users.
The Court has confirmed the Foundation’s role as hosting provider as well as its neutral role … Continue Reading
On 26 March 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered a most interesting and instructive verdict on the matter of live streaming of sports events on the Internet (C More Entertainment vs. Sandberg, Case Ref.: C‑279/13). The 9th Chamber ruled that Member States may grant statutory broadcasting rights that go beyond the … Continue Reading
On 24 November 2014, the Russian President signed into law a bill introducing amendments to the so-called Anti-piracy Law[1] and expanding its scope to all types of copyright-protected content available on the Internet, except for photographs (the “Law“)[2]. The Law will take effect on 1 May 2015.
Under the Law the following procedure will become … Continue Reading
In a recent decision of the Paris Court of Appeal dated 2 December 2014, the French video-sharing website Dailymotion was held liable to pay more than 1,2 million Euros in damages to the French TV channel TF1 and other stakeholders on the grounds that Dailymotion did not promptly remove around 60 videos unlawfully made available online in breach of TF1’s … Continue Reading
The First Vice Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has reportedly[1] ordered the Russian Ministries of Culture, Communications, Economic Development, Finance, and Justice to assess a proposal from the Russian Union of Right Holders (“RUR“), to fight piracy by introducing a fixed royalty fee to be paid to rights holders in exchange for unlimited use of content on Internet. … Continue Reading
On 17 October 2014, in the case of Cartier International AG and Others v BskyB and Others, Arnold J ordered the five major UK ISPs to block a number of websites that were advertising and selling counterfeit goods and on 17 November 2014 he handed down his judgment on the form of the Order. The case is interesting because, according … Continue Reading
