In the European Union, courts have been expanding the enforcement of intellectual property rights by employing injunctions to compel intermediaries to provide assistance, despite no allegation of wrongdoing against these parties. These prospective injunctions, designed to prevent future harm, thus hold parties accountable where no liability exists. Effectively a new type of regulatory tool, these injunctions are distinct from the conventional secondary liability in tort. At present, they can be observed in orders to compel website blocking, content filtering, or disconnection, but going forward, their use is potentially unlimited. This book outlines the paradigmatic shift this entails for the future of the Internet and analyzes the associated legal and economic opportunities and problems.
This book explores an emerging type of intellectual property remedy - an injunction that can compel innocent third parties to provide enforcement assistance.
The principle of Access to Knowledge (A2K) has become a common reference point for a diverse set of agendas that all hope to realize technological and human potential by making knowledge more accessible. This book is a history of international copyright focused on principles of A2K and their proponents. Whilst debate and discussion so far has covered the perspectives of major western countries, the author's fresh approach to the topic considers emerging countries and NGOs, who have fought for the principles of A2K that are now fundamental to the system. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book connects copyright history to current problems, issues and events.
Despite the apparent advantages of the internet, there is little debate that it facilitates intellectual property infringements, including infringements of trade mark rights. Infringers not only remain hidden by the anonymity the internet provides but also take advantage of its increasing reach and the associated challenges with regard to cross-border enforcement of rights. These factors, among others, have rendered the internet a growing source of counterfeit and other infringing products. It has, therefore, become necessary for right holders to shift their focus from individual infringers to internet intermediaries, such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hosts and navigation providers, which are responsible in numerous ways for making content promoting infringements available to internet users. In light of these developments, this book conducts a comprehensive analysis of the liability of such intermediaries for trade mark infringements and considers the associated issues and challenges in the diverging approaches under which liability may be imposed. At present, however, neither UK trade mark law nor English common-law principles relating to accessorial liability provide a basis to hold internet intermediaries liable for trade mark infringements. As such, this book considers approaches adopted in some of the Continental European countries and the US in order to propose reforms aimed at addressing gaps in the existing legal framework. This book also examines alternative remedies, such as notice and takedown and injunctions, and discusses the associated shortcomings of each of these remedies.
This significantly revised and updated second edition addresses the rapid development of EU copyright law in relation to the advancement of new technologies, the need for a borderless digital market and the considerable number of EU legal instruments enacted as a result. Taking a comparative approach, the Commentary provides comprehensive coverage and in-depth commentary on each of the EU legal instruments and policies, both from an EU and an international perspective. Alongside full legislative analysis and article-by-article commentary, the Commentary illustrates the underlying basic principles of free movement and non-discrimination and provides insights into the influence of copyright on other areas of EU policy, including telecoms and bilateral trade agreements.
The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) provides a comprehensive framework regulating the provision of digital intermediary services in the EU internal market. It clarifies the conditions under which service providers can avoid being held liable for their users’ illegal content, establishes a set of harmonized duties they must follow, and sets broad safeguards for users’ rights. As an extensive article-by-article commentary, this book offers a comprehensive guide to the complex web of the DSA’s tightly intertwined provision. On a systemic level, it also contextualizes the DSA by exploring its relationship to other relevant legal instruments, such as those related to consumer protection, data protection, and private international law. Among the topics and issues addressed are the following: Liability and Content Moderation liability of online services which transmit, cache, or store illegal user content; rules on removing, reducing visibility of, or otherwise moderating content which is illegal or breaches terms of service; and acting against user content based on own investigations, governmental orders, or received notices, and rights and redress possibilities given to users. Service-Specific Obligations rules affecting profiling-based advertising, content recommendation systems, and user interface design; duties of platforms which disseminate user content, obligations of online consumer marketplaces, and exemptions for micro and small enterprises; novel transparency reporting duties, publication of databases and reports, and provision of access to platform data and algorithms; and duties of very large online platforms and search engines. Enforcement Framework competencies, tasks and powers of authorities and the EU Commission to monitor compliance, investigate infringements and impose sanctions; national, cross-border and European coordination, cooperation and enforcement mechanisms; and issues of jurisdiction and applicable law, and duties of providers established outside of the EU. Given the DSA’s scope, this book will be relevant to businesses of any size that handle user content. It will also be of great value to a broad audience of legal practitioners, public officials, civil society stakeholders, researchers, and content creators. All professionals working with user content management issues can use this book to gain valuable compliance insights.
Intellectual Property at the Edge addresses both newly formed intellectual property rights and those which have lurked on the fringes, unadmitted to the established IP canon. It provides a basis for studying and discussing the history of these emerging rights as well as their relationship to new technological opportunities and to the changing importance of innovation and creative production in the global economy. In addition to addressing the scope of new rights, it also focuses on new limitations to patent, copyright and trademark rights that spring from similar changes. All of these developments are examined comparatively: for each new development, scholars in two jurisdictions analyse the evolving legal norm. In several instances, the first of the paired authors writes from the perspective of the legal system in which the doctrine emerged, and the second addresses its reception in her jurisdiction.
This book will be of interest for all jurists doing research and working practically in intellectual property law and international economic law. It should be an element of the base stock for every law school library and specialized law firm. This title is available as Open Access.
