The Italian Supreme Court confirmed that software which derives from a pre-existing computer program is eligible for copyright protection provided it demonstrates a minimal level of originality, even…
The Supreme Court maintains its position in a case concerning a Lancôme perfume, stating that ‘copyright only protects creations in their tangible form, so far as this form is identifiable with…
“The law does not allow for additional protection of the maker of a work against so-called slavish imitation of a style or of elements of style.”
Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 29 March 2013 …
Besides tulips, cheese, football and other recreational matters, the Netherlands are famous for its copyright protection of non-original writings. Geschriftenbescherming, as the Dutch call this…
The usefulness of a computer program is not sufficient to characterise the originality of the program.
There is nothing more subjective, and often arbitrary and unfair, than the notion on which…
“What seems to lack in the decision of the Court, at the end of the day, is a clear test of what constitutes a structural element in the 'embryonic stage'.
Last 19 October 2012, the Italian Supreme…
UK: High Court Chancery Division, 23 March 2012, Seaton v Seddon.
The members of the reggae band Musical Youth brought a case against their former solicitors with regards to the royalties due from a…
On 26 January 2012, the Belgian Supreme Court decided to quash an appeal decision deeming that “when requiring that a work must show the stamp of the author’s personality in order to benefit from…
By Mireille van Eechoud, Institute for Information Law (IViR)
Of the many questions addressed by the Court in its Painer judgment (Case C-145/10) the most impact will probably be on the construction…
