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Month: June 2018

Russian Federal Antitrust Service explained why it proposed to restrict the monopoly of IP rights

No so long time ago the Russian Federal Antitrust Service (FAS) has proposed to restrict the monopoly of IP rights in order to protect competition in digital Russian market. The so called “fifth antitrust packet” provides opportunity to deprive the developers of their rights in trademarks, software and inventions. FAS believes it is justified in the terms of sanctions imposed on Russia; as long as the sanctions are in force, the IP rights can be diminished.

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Right holders asked “Russian Google” Yandex to de-index links to pirate web-sites

Producers and distributors of content have called Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh to de-index URLs of web-sites with illegal content, in other words they asked him not to search such web-sites in internet. They have sent him a collective letter signed by representatives from music industry, internet industry, from association of movie and TV producers and media-communication union.

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Russian sport radio station has been sued for coverage Pyeongchang 2018

Russian company “Telesport” has filed a suit against Russian radio station for infringement of broadcasting rights. According to suit “Telesport” has concluded with International Olympic Committee agreement allowing broadcasting the sport events in Pyeongchang 2018 on exclusive basis. “Telesport” seeks 33 mln Roubles for damages.

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Russian software developer filed 44-mln suit against Amazon and Veeam for copyright infringement

Software developer from Saint-Petersburg has filed a suit against Amazon and Veeam Software. The claimant seeks almost 44 mln Roubles for damages. Formerly claimant worked in Veeam’s Russian entity – “Intervim”. According to claim the claimant developed software “eLearning Metadata Manager” targeted to developers of content for online courses. In 2016 he quit and proposed his employer to conclude non-exclusive license agreement in order to allow employer to use developed software.

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How Zorro in public domain can cause a copyright dispute

The fictional character of “Zorro” first debuted in 1919 in “The Curse of Capistrano” (“COC”), a serialized story by Johnston McCulley which was published in All-Story Weekly. In 1920, COC was adapted into a silent movie titled “The Mark of Zorro” by Douglas Fairbanks. In 1922, McCulley published a sequel to COC entitled “The Further Adventures of Zorro,” which also appeared as a serialized story in All-Story Weekly. COC has also since been re-published as a novel entitled “The Mark of Zorro.” All of these works are in the public domain.

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Strengthening the Press Through Copyright – lack of legal protection

The briefing note by committee of legal affairs demonstrates that the new, related right for press publishers provided in Article 11 of the ‘Proposed DSM Directive’ is required to address pressing market failures in the area of the online press. The note also outlines why the proposed Article 11 is proportionate and the criticism raised against it by various stakeholders is not compelling.

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SWD IA on EU copyright modernisation – impacts of first option for out-of-commerce works in the collections of cultural heritage institutions

EU legislative intervention (i) requiring MS to put in place legal mechanisms to facilitate collective licensing agreements for OoC books and learned journals and to foster national stakeholder frameworks for these and other works, and (ii) giving cross-border effect to such legal mechanisms.

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New South African’s IP policy has been published

The National Development Plan (NDP) of South Africa calls for a greater emphasis on innovation, improved productivity, an intensive pursuit of a knowledge economy and the better exploitation of comparative and competitive advantages. Intellectual Property (IP) is an important policy instrument in promoting innovation, technology transfer, research and development (R&D), creative expression, consumer protection, industrial development and more broadly, economic growth.

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