24 October 2024
Judgment in Case C-227/23 Kwantum Nederland et Kwantum België
(Intellectual, industrial and commercial property)
Vitra, a Swiss designer furniture company, owns the intellectual property rights to chairs designed by the American couple Charles and Ray Eames. In particular, Vitra manufactures the Dining Sidechair Wood, which was designed as part of a furniture design competition launched by the Museum of Modern Art in New York (USA) and exhibited there from 1950.
Kwantum, on the other hand, operates a chain of interior furniture shops in the Netherlands and Belgium. Kwantum is alleged to have marketed a chair, known as the ‘Paris chair’, in breach of Vitra’s copyright in the Dining Sidechair Wood.
Vitra brought the matter before the Dutch courts. The Netherlands’ Supreme Court decided to refer questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.
In principle, copyright protects the works of national authors or those publishing for the first time on national territory, but excludes the authors of foreign works from this protection. It is only by virtue of international conventions that authors benefit from this protection outside the territory of their respective countries. At present, the main instrument of international copyright law worldwide is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
The European Union is not a party to this Convention, but each individual Member State is. Therefore, the Member States, hence the Union, are obliged to comply with the substantive provisions of this Convention by virtue of its other international commitments.
Under the Berne Convention, authors who are nationals of signatory countries enjoy, in principle, the same rights as national authors in the other signatory countries.
One exception to this principle concerns the protection of works of applied art. Having failed to agree on a common regime, the contracting parties have established a material reciprocity clause. Under this clause works of applied art originating in countries in which such works are protected exclusively as designs or models cannot, in other signatory countries, benefit from both design and copyright protection.
The question referred by the Dutch Supreme Court to the Court of Justice is whether the Member States are still free to apply the reciprocity clause contained in the Berne Convention to works of applied art originating in third countries which protect such works only under a special regime.
Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2024
Urheberrechtlicher Schutz von Gegenständen der angewandten Kunst aus Nicht-EU-Ländern
Die Schweizer Firma Vitra Collections stellt „Designer“-Möbel her, u. a. den Stuhl „Dining Sidechair Wood“, den das inzwischen verstorbene US-Ehepaar Charles und Ray Eames entworfen hat. Vitra ist Inhaberin etwaiger Urheberrechte an diesem Stuhl.
Sie macht vor den niederländischen Gerichten geltend, dass die Einrichtungskette Kwantum durch die Vermarktung eines Stuhls unter dem Namen „Paris“ ihre Urheberrechte an dem Dining Sidechair Wood verletze.
Der Hoge Raad der Nederlanden hat den Gerichtshof in diesem Zusammenhang um Vorabentscheidung hinsichtlich des urheberrechtlichen Schutzes von Gegenständen der angewandten Kunst ersucht, deren Ursprungsland kein Mitgliedstaat ist (hier: USA).
Die Berner Übereinkunft enthält insoweit eine Gegenseitigkeitsklausel. Danach haben Werke der angewandten Kunst mit Ursprung in Ländern, in denen solche Werke nur als Muster oder Modelle geschützt werden, in den anderen Unterzeichnerländern keinen Anspruch auf Kumulierung dieses Schutzes mit dem Urheberrechtsschutz.
Im Unionsrecht hingegen genießen Werke der angewandten Kunst urheberrechtlichen Schutz, ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass sie auch als Muster oder Modelle unter eine besondere Schutzregelung fallen können.
Es geht im Wesentlichen die Frage, ob es den Mitgliedstaaten noch freisteht, die in der Berner Übereinkunft enthaltene Gegenseitigkeitsklausel auf Werke der angewandten Kunst mit Ursprung in Drittländern anzuwenden, die diese Werke lediglich aufgrund einer besonderen Regelung schützen.
Generalanwalt Szpunar hat in seinen Schlussanträgen vom 5. September 2024 die Ansicht vertreten, dass die Mitgliedstaaten die Gegenseitigkeitsklausel nicht anwenden dürfen.
We and use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your experience on our website. We may store and/or access information on a device and process personal data, such as your IP address and browsing data, for personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development. Additionally, we may utilize precise geolocation data and identification through device scanning.
Please note that your consent will be valid across all our subdomains. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the “Consent Preferences” button at the bottom of your screen. We respect your choices and are committed to providing you with a transparent and secure browsing experience.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__stripe_mid | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. | |
__stripe_sid | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. | |
_abck | This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions. | |
_wpfuuid | This cookie is used by the WPForms WordPress plugin. The cookie is used to allows the paid version of the plugin to connect entries by the same user and is used for some additional features like the Form Abandonment addon. | |
ASP.NET_SessionId | Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. | |
AWSALBCORS | This cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing. | |
bm_sz | This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. It also helps in fraud preventions | |
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". | |
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". | |
cookielawinfo-checbox-others | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". | |
elementor | This cookie is used by the website's WordPress theme. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time. | |
JSESSIONID | Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests. | |
viewed_cookie_policy | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. | |
_ga_4L7PKQPHHV | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. | |
_ga_T50H0MNN9J | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. | |
_gat_gtag_UA_12289088_5 | Set by Google to distinguish users. | |
_gcl_au | Provided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services. | |
_gid | Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
test_cookie | The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_mcid | No description available. | |
_swa_u | This cookie is set by the provider Sitewit.com. This cookie is used for statistical report and analysis. | |
ak_bmsc | No description available. | |
AWSALB | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It works slightly different from AWSELB. | |
ec_store_chameleon_font | No description available. | |
FCCDCF | No description available. | |
issuem_lp | No description available. | |
lp_us_his | No description | |
m | No description available. |