Damages in Copyright Infringement: Punitive? Dissuasive? Contrary to the rule of law?

This paper examines damages in copyright infringement, in particular the scope and purpose of damages to include dissuading the public.

Under the provisions of the Enforcement Directive 2004/48/EC and the UK IP Enforcement Regulations 2006, the UK Courts have developed principles on quantifying damages in copyright infringement cases. Previously, there were two rudimentary models based on the principle of compensation; (1) damages in order to restore the claimant to the position they would have been in if the infringement had not occurred, and (2) an account of profits from the defendant’s illegal gains. Subsequently, ‘additional damages’ could be awarded at the discretion of the court. One of the factors that can be taken into consideration is to dissuade the defendant and any actual or potential other infringers, as decided in the case of PPL v Hagan [2016] EWHC 3076 (IPEC).

It appears that the scope in the purpose of awarding damages in copyright infringement cases has expanded from compensatory, to punishment and deterrence. As such, this paper questions whether the expansion of the scope of damages for copyright infringement to include being ‘dissuasive’ to the public, is contrary to the rule of law.

A light lunch will be provided.  All are welcome. 

About the speaker: Dr Hayleigh Bosher, Senior Lecture in IP Coventry University

Hayleigh is Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Coventry University. She is also a Visiting Lecturer in IP at the University of the Arts London (UAL) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy and Management. She holds a PhD in Copyright Law from Bournemouth University, under the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship Award. She is a Director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Network (IPAN), and founder of the World IP Women (WIPW) network, as well as a member of the IPKat team. See her list of publications here.