Internet challenges for EU intellectual property rights

This talk will focus on the enforcement of intellectual property rights on the internet. In particular, numerous issues, which are recurring in the case law of the CJEU, will be covered. First, the conditions for granting injunctions against internet intermediaries will be explored (UPC Telekabel Wien, Mc Fadden and Stichting Brein). Secondly, the notion of communication to the public in relation to hyperlinks (GS Media) and peer-to-peer communications (Stichting Brein) will be analysed. Thirdly, the system of private copying levies in the digital age (Egeda) and the conditions of e-lending (Vereniging van Openbare Bibliotheken) will be considered. Finally, the issue of jurisdiction in the context of online infringements will be examined, with particular emphasis on the determination of the place where the harmful event occurred in the sense of Article 5(3) of the Brussels I Regulation (Pinkney, Coty Germany, Hejduk, Concurrence).

Maciej Szpunar is an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union and Professor of Law at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). He is a member of the Research Group on Existing EC Private Law (‘Acquis Group'), a member of the European Group for Private International Law, and an associated member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is also a member of the consultative committee of the ERA in Trier and the President of the Polish Association of European Law. He has served as Undersecretary of State at the Office of the Committee for European Integration (2008-09), and then served in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-13).