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Written by Atanas Kostov

Created: 14 June 2015

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fourth Chamber)

21 June 2012 (*)

(Free movement of goods — Industrial and commercial property — Sale of copies of works in a Member State in which the copyright on those works is not protected — Transport of those goods to another Member State in which the infringement of the copyright is sanctioned under criminal law — Criminal proceedings against the transporter for aiding and abetting the unlawful distribution of a work protected by copyright law)

In Case C-5/11,

REFERENCE for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Bundesgerichtshof (Germany), made by decision of 8 December 2010, received at the Court on 6 January 2011, in the criminal proceedings against

Titus Alexander Jochen Donner,

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Written by Atanas Kostov

Created: 09 June 2015

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Second Chamber)

15 January 2015 (*)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Directive 96/9/EC — Legal protection of databases — Database not protected by copyright or the sui generis right — Contractual limitation on the rights of users of the database)

In Case C‑30/14,

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (Netherlands), made by decision of 17 January 2014, received at the Court on 22 January 2014, in the proceedings

Ryanair Ltd

v

PR Aviation BV,

THE COURT (Second Chamber),

composed of R. Silva de Lapuerta, President of the Chamber, K. Lenaerts (Rapporteur), Vice-President of the Court, J.-C. Bonichot, A. Arabadjiev and J.L. da Cruz Vilaça, Judges,

Advocate General: Y. Bot,

Registrar: C. Strömholm,

having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 12 November 2014,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

–        Ryanair Ltd, represented initially by M. van Heezik, A. van Aerde and R. Le Poole, and subsequently by A. van Aerde and R. Le Poole, advocaten,

–        PR Aviation BV, by A. Groen, advocaat,

–        the European Commission, by J. Samnadda and F. Wilman, acting as Agents,

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

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Written by Atanas Kostov

Created: 09 June 2015

Some broadcasters no longer broadcast directly to the public. Instead, a broadcaster will supply their channels and programming output to ‘distributors’ such as the cable, telephone, and satellite TV companies. Subscribers to the services provided by these distributors can then watch the broadcaster’s output. This does however generate a question of copyright law. Namely, for the purposes of the EU’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29/EC, who is making a ‘communication to the public’? Is it the broadcaster? Or is it the distributor? Or could it be both?

Facts
SBS Belgium is a company that makes and broadcasts television programmes in Dutch, the language widely spoken in the Flanders region of Belgium.

Besides making its own programmes, SBS Belgium also runs two private commercial stations respectively known as ‘FOUR’ and ‘FIVE’ [VIER and VIJF]. These stations broadcast programmes that originate not only from SBS Belgium but they also include programmes which SBS Belgium buys-in from other domestic and foreign companies that supply programming content.

The legal issue here is one of copyright. Generally, programmes contain a raft of copyright-protected works, and rights holders can invoke copyright law to stop those works from being communicated to the public without their consent, something which is normally available at a price.

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Written by Atanas Kostov

Created: 09 June 2015

JUDGMENT OF THE GENERAL COURT (First Chamber)

30 September 2014 (*)

(Community trade mark — Revocation proceedings — Community word mark LAMBRETTA — Genuine use of the mark — Partial revocation — Article 51(2) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)

In Case T‑51/12,

Scooters India Ltd, established in Lucknow (India), represented by B. Brandreth, Barrister,

applicant,

v

Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM), represented by J. Crespo Carrillo, acting as Agent,

defendant,

the other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of OHIM, intervener before the General Court, being

Brandconcern BV, established in Amsterdam (Netherlands), represented by G. Casucci, N. Ferreti and C. Galli, lawyers,

ACTION brought against the decision of the First Board of Appeal of OHIM of 1 December 2011 (Case R 2312/2010-1), relating to revocation proceedings between Brandconcern BV and Scooters India Ltd,

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Written by Atanas Kostov

Created: 08 June 2015