On 13 June 2013, Advocate General (“AG”) Niilo Jääskinen of the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) issued his non-binding Opinion in the Pinckney case, dealing with the question of courts’ competence to hear online copyright infringement cases in the EU. In his Opinion, the AG extended to copyright principles developed in relation to other IP… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: copyright infringement
Federal Courts Increasingly Receptive to IP Geolocation Data; Copyright, Other Lawsuits Affected
Posted in Intellectual Property, TelecommunicationsA series of recent decisions suggests that federal courts increasingly are accepting evidence derived from Internet Protocol (IP) geolocation databases, which make it possible to look up the geographic location of a computer or other similarly-equipped electronic device. This development may be particularly significant in the area of copyright litigation, where alleged online infringers can… Continue Reading
The English High Court Rules that a Copyright Infringer Is a Trespasser, Not a Thief
Posted in Intellectual PropertyBy Jacqueline Clover and Helena Marttila-Bridge On 5 February 2013, the English High Court handed down a judgment in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp & Ors v Harris & Ors [2013] EWHC 159 (Ch), according to which copyright owners have no proprietary rights to the money derived from infringement of their copyright. The case involved… Continue Reading
The Geography of Online Infringement: Study Names Sweden as Hotspot for Infringement
Posted in Domain Names, Intellectual PropertyA recent study reports that country code Top-Level Domains (“ccTLDs”) belonging to Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are the most commonly used for online copyright infringement. The study, published in January by Internet researcher Cedric Manara, focuses on data provided by Google regarding the requests it receives to remove search results that link… Continue Reading
U.S. “Cracks” Software Piracy Scheme: Chinese Seller and U.S. Customers Plead Guilty
Posted in Intellectual PropertyEarlier this week, Xiang Li pleaded guilty in Delaware federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Li, a Chinese national, was charged with selling “cracked” software (i.e., software for which access controls had been circumvented) to customers around the world through… Continue Reading