AG Hogan Opinion in the case C-433/20 Austro-Mechana
On 23 September 2021, AG Hogan delivered his Opinion in the C-433/20 Austro-Mechana case which concerns the exception and limitation of copyright from Article 5(2)(b) of the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (InfoSoc Directive), specifically in regards to the private copying exception. The AG suggests that the private copyright exception applies in the cloud, but a separate levy may not be payable.
Austro-Mechana is a copyright collecting society, which has brought an action before the Commercial Court Vienna (Handelsgericht Wien) against Strato, which provides a service of virtual cloud storage. The Commercial Court Vienna started preliminary rulling procedure before the CJEU, in which the Advocate General proposed the following:
– The terms ‘reproductions on any medium’ in Article 5(2)(b) of the InfoSoc Directive includes reproduction based on cloud computing services provided by a third party.
– A separate levy or fee is not payable in respect of the reproduction by a natural person for their own personal purposes based on cloud computing services provided by a third party provided that the levies paid in respect of devices/media in the Member State in question also reflects the harm caused to the rightholder by such reproduction.
The Grand Board of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) finally ruled that the figurative sign ‘COVIDIOT’ cannot be registered as an EU trademark.
The 4th Open Knowledge Day took place on Tuesday 17 October 2023, with an accompanying workshop on 18 October 2023. This year it was organised by the Open Data and Intellectual Property Institute (ODIPI) and supported by Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21).
We invite you to the fourth Open Knowledge Day and the workshop, which will take place this year within the framework of the programme and with the support of Knowledge Rights 21. The event will bring together experts from different European countries to discuss two topics: the first part will deal with the legal basis for data analytics, which is a key part of machine learning and related artificial intelligence, and the general exception for research. In the second part, open science in theory and practice will be presented both in Slovenia and in some Western Balkan countries. Representatives of research and educational institutions from Slovenia and the Western Balkan countries, as well as interested members of the public, are invited to attend.
Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, a renowned expert in copyright law, has joined the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she will serve as an affiliate researcher for the next two years.