Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Analyzing five antimonopoly suits against Microsoft

Google Book Settlement and Antitrust Issues

Two recent articles:

Randal C. Picker, The Google Book Search Settlement: A New Orphan-Works Monopoly?
5 Journal of Competition Law and Economics 383 (2009)

Jerry A. Hausman and J. Gregory Sidak, Google and the Proper Antitrust Scrutiny of Orphan Books, 5 Journal of Competition Law and Economics 411 (2009)


New, "consumer friendly" EU competition website

Delivering for consumers, introduced by Neelie Kroes' own words that the new website "is very easy to use. You might have seen that the main DG Competition site is very detailed. This new site is interactive and highly visual, including a short video aimed at consumers. Users can also learn about our work by product or country in friendly, plain language. This is about showing consumers that competition is worth the effort involved."

Antitrust and Innovative Markets

The Limits of Antitrust in the New Economy, G.Manne, J.Wright. See also J. Gregory Sidak & David J. Teece, Dynamic Competition in Antitrust Law and Promoting Innovation: Just How “Dynamic” Should Antitrust Law Be?, J. Thomas Rosch.

On the need to reconceptualize antitrust private enforcement models

Working paper, Optimizing Private Antitrust Enforcement, by D. Crane.

Friday, October 16, 2009

New Zealand: Abuse of Dominant Position in Markets for High-speed Data Transmission

High Court, ruling COMMERCE COMMISSION V TELECOM CORPORATION OF NEW ZEALAND LIMITED And Anor HC, AK CIV 2004-404-1333 - 9 October 2009-

Neelie Kroes on Standards

Address at Harvard Club of Belgium, "De Warande" Brussels, 15th October 2009. See also the IACS decision on de facto industry standards for classification.

Competition in the Publishing Industry in Italy?

The Italian Competition Authority has published the second part of its sector inquiry, specifically dealing with newspaper distribution issues.

Trade Mark Exhaustion and Implicit Consent

European Court of Justice, Case C-324/08 Makro Zelfbedieningsgroothandel CV, Metro Cash & Carry BV and Remo Zaandam BV v Diesel.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Google Chef-Justitiar auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse

S. Bericht des Instituts für Urheber- und Medienrecht

Leniency Convergence in the EU

A Report issued by the European Competition Network. See also the list of applicable leniency programmes.

The FTC's Chairman on the Enforcement of the U.S. Antitrust Laws

Remarks of Chairman Jon Leibowitz, 36th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy, Fordham Competition Law Institute at Fordham Law School
September 24, 2009

Branding Individual Corn Flakes

Giving Kellogg's golden flakes of corn "an official stamp of approval", see the story coverage by BrandRepublic and The Guardian.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

AAI: RPM should remain a "hardcore restriction"

Comments of the American Antitrust Institute on the European Commission's proposed BER and Guidelines on vertical restraints.

The US Goverment's position on Bilski

A suggestion that software should be left substantially patentable? S. also Groklaw's post.

The Court of First Instance on the distinctive character of a mark

Smiley: decorative function, not a distinctive sign, Case T‑139/08, The Smiley Company SPRL v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Neelie Kroes on issues round EU state aid control system

Speech held at the 36th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy , Fordham University

Friday, September 25, 2009

Google Book Settlement:Amendment Ahead

See MOTION for Hearing / Notice of Unopposed Motion of the Author Sub-Class and the Publisher Sub-Class to Adjourn October 7, 2009 Final Fairness Hearing and Schedule Status Conference (new deadline: November, 9).

Monday, September 21, 2009

Salame Felino and the European Court of Justice

Case C‑446/07 Alberto Severi, in his own name and representing Cavazzuti e figli SpA, now known as Grandi Salumifici Italiani SpA v Regione Emilia-Romagna. From the decision: " Articles 3(1) and 13(3) ... must be interpreted as meaning that the designation of a foodstuff containing geographical references, which is not registered as a protected designation of origin or a protected geographical indication, may legitimately be used, on condition that the labelling of the product so named does not mislead the average reasonably well informed, observant and circumspect consumer. For the purpose of assessing whether that is the case, national courts may have regard to the length of time during which the name has been used. By contrast, any good faith on the part of the manufacturer or retailer is irrelevant in that regard"

EU Intel Decision now Published

Prohibition decision (517 pp.) and decision summary.

Google Book Settlement: Department of Justice's Statement of Interest

The Department of Justice has expressed serious legal concerns. A comment by Randy Picker.

Monday, September 14, 2009

China and Competition Policy

AAI Working Paper by Wu Hanhong

Die volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung geistigen Eigentums und dessen Schutzes mit Fokus auf den Mittelstand

Studie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie.

SMEs and IP in Switzerland

Economic Focus Study and Case Studies by the Swiss Federal Institute of IP.

UK horseracing: collective negotiation and licensing of media rights not anticompetitive

Court of Appeal's judgment.

Spanish Copyright Collecting Society Fined for Abuse of Dominant Position

The remuneration scheme was deemed abusive because, inter alia, general fees were simply calculated as a percentage of the Telecinco's revenues. See also the ECJ Kanal 5 case.

Pressefusionskontrolle: Anwendung der Abwägungsklausel

Aus der Pressemeldung des Bundeskartellamtes: "Nach Auffassung des Bundeskartellamtes überwiegen die durch den Zusammenschluss entstehenden Verbesserungen der Marktstruktur auf dem Lesermarkt im Verbreitungsgebiet der Elmshorner Nachrichten die mögliche Verschlechterung auf den Anzeigen- und Lesermärkten im Kreis Steinburg".

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Europeana and Copyright: A Common Solution for Europe's Digital Library?

From the Press release:

"However, the substantial progress made with Europeana also brings to the surface the challenges and problems linked to the digitisation process. At the moment, Europeana includes mainly digitised books which are in the public domain and are thus no longer protected by copyright law (which extends to 70 years after the death of the author).

For the moment, Europeana includes, for legal reasons, neither out-of print works (some 90% of the books in Europe's national libraries), nor orphan works (estimated at 10 – 20% of in-copyright collections) which are still in copyright but where the author cannot be identified.

Europeana also shows that licensing of copyright-protected material in Europe still takes place under a very fragmented legal framework. Earlier this year a French aggregator had to withdraw photographs from Europeana, since it only had the right to disseminate the material on French territory".

A public consultation on these very controversial topics has been launched.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Mario Monti on International Competition/Antitrust Convergence and Enforcement in Troubled Times

Keynote address to the American Antitrust Institute Conference “Antitrust In A World Without A Center” June 18, 2009

F. M. Scherer on Patent Policy: Some Recommendations for Competition Authorities

From THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PATENT POLICY REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: "For the federal antitrust agencies, the extension of patent monopolies in time through profuse improvement patenting and their extension in scope through restrictive cross-licensing agreements pose important enforcement problems. Here too, the problem is in part one of education. Those who manage the antitrust agencies need to learn that there are important barriers to rapid imitation, enhancing incentives for innovation, other than the patent system, so maximization of monopoly rewards associated with patent holdings is unlikely to maximize economic welfare. These agencies need to learn that extension of patent monopolies over time and in scope is more likely to suppress than stimulate innovation. and insisting that drug production be opened up for generic competition once basic patents have expired, leaving however the right to produce validly patented improvement molecules exclusively in the hands of the original drug developer (or any other firm that patents and tests improved variants)"

Friday, July 31, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

AAI's breakout session "Can Section 5 and Article 82 Converge?" at its Annual Conference

Interesting materials available for download.

European Court of Justice on "temporary and transient reproductions"

From C-5/08, Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening, 16 July 2009: " In the light of the foregoing, the Court finds that an act can be held to be ‘transient’ within the meaning of the second condition laid down in Article 5(1) of Directive 2001/29 only if its duration is limited to what is necessary for the proper completion of the technological process in question, it being understood that that process must be automated so that it deletes that act automatically, without human intervention, once its function of enabling the completion of such a process has come to an end".

Friday, June 26, 2009

IP and competition law

From John Vickers, Competition Policy and Property Rights, p.23
"The European Microsoft judgment has therefore left unclear when a dominant firm with IP rights must share them with rivals. Following the judgment, the answer in Europe appears to be: by no means as exceptionally as previously thought. In some ways it is regrettable that Microsoft did not appeal to the European Court of Justice, which might usefully have clarified if not tightened the law".

Roundtable on Competition and Recession

Hosted by the UK Competition Commission.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

On essential facilities and refusals to deal

Comparative and international competition/antitrust law on this relatively open topic, by Spencer Weber Waller, William Tasch, "Harmonizing Essential Facilities and Refusals to Deal".

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Michael Geist has some "visions" for Canada's Copyright Law

From a speech he held at the Canada's Digital Economy Conference, "...we need to provide business confidence with rules that provide sufficient flexibility to innovate. We need rules that give consumers confidence that they won’t lose access to their online purchases whenever an online seller drops support for a particular business line. Rules that assure consumers that it’s ok to use their PVR or to shift music to their iPod. Rules that encourage rather than discourage research into encryption and digital security, distance learning opportunities, access to knowledge and long overdue digitization initiatives. We can achieve this kind of reform and still implement international treaties such as the WIPO Internet treaties".

Competition Policy in Italy

The Italian Competition Authority publishes its Annual Report.

Ringtones as Public Performances?

ASCAP's position in US v. ASCAP (on the determination of licensing fees) .

Competition and the Need to Boost the Economy

Rainer Lindberg from the Finnish Competition Authority argues that competition is not an enemy but a precious ally for the current macroeconomic stimulus tools.

Monday, June 22, 2009

European Court of Justice on Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003

From the judgement, C-429/07, Inspecteur van de Belastingdienst v X BV, 11.06.2009.
"(...) a literal interpretation of the first subparagraph of Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003 leads to the conclusion that the option for the Commission, acting on its own initiative, to submit written observations to courts of the Member States is subject to the sole condition that the coherent application of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC so requires. That condition may be fulfilled even if the proceedings concerned do not pertain to issues relating to the application of Article 81 or Article 82 of the Treaty"
...
In proceedings relating to the penalties in respect of anti‑competitive practices provided for in Article 83(2)(a) EC, the decision that the court seised must give is capable of impairing the effectiveness of those penalties and therefore might compromise the coherent application of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC.
In the circumstances of the action in the main proceedings, it is quite clear that the outcome of the dispute relating to the tax deductibility of part of a fine imposed by the Commission is capable of impairing the effectiveness of the penalty imposed by the Community competition authority. The effectiveness of the Commission’s decision by which it imposed a fine on a company might be significantly reduced if the company concerned, or at least a company linked to that company, were allowed to deduct fully or in part the amount of that fine from the amount of its taxable profits, since such a possibility would have the effect of offsetting the burden of that fine with a reduction of the tax burden.
It follows from all of the foregoing that the third sentence of the first subparagraph of Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003 must be interpreted as meaning that it permits the Commission to submit on its own initiative written observations to a national court of a Member State in proceedings relating to the deductibility from taxable profits of the amount of a fine or a part thereof imposed by the Commission for infringement of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC".

File sharing and incentives to produce entertainment: how do they affect each other?

Not very easy to assess, as recently explained by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf (Harvard Business School).

Dynamic competition and merger control

Horizontal Merger Guidelines need rewriting to provide for more dynamic competition, according to David Teece and Gregory Sidak

OECD on (more) innovation in troubled times

Document entitled Policy Responses to the Economic Crisis: Investing in Innovation for Long-Term Growth, which will be discussed at the next OECD ministerial meeting in Paris.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

On the economic and legal analysis of systems

Are we really able to assess systems from the point of view of competition policy? A very interesting symposium hosted by the AAI

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Google - University of Michigan

Description of the Google-Michigan amended terms released by the Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Microsoft and the browser choice

Microsoft's has announced the (apparent?) separation of Internet Explorer (IE) from Windows. According to the Commission, other solutions would have been more suitable, such as allowing "consumers to choose from different web browsers presented to them through a 'ballot screen' in Windows"

Friday, June 12, 2009

Financial Regulation and the Current Crisis

"A Guide for the Antitrust Community" by Lawrence J. White.

Universities and copyright law in Italy: The point of view of a collecting society

Socalled "Guidelines" (Linee guida sulla gestione dei diritti d'autore nelle università) by the AIDRO (Associazione Italiana per I Diritti di Riproduzione delle Opere dell'ingegno - a Reproduction Rights Organisation - RRO). Comments can be sent to segreteria@aidro.org, but it is still unclear whether they will be published on the AIDRO's website.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Loi favorisant la diffusion et la protection de la création sur internet

Décision du Conseil Constitutionnel n° 2009-580 DC du 10 juin 2009.

LG Frankfurt am Main: Elektronische Leseplätze in Bibliotheken (§ 52b UrhG)

LG Frankfurt am Main, 2-06 O 172/09 (verkündet am 13.05.2009).
Lesenswertes aus der Begründung (meine Hervorhebungen):
"Vorstellbare tatsächlich effektive Kontrollen, die zuvor eine detaillierte Darlegung und Prüfung des Zwecks der Nutzung voraussetzen würden, erweisen sich erkennbar als unverhältnismäßig
und stehen der Intention der Regelung des § 52b UrhG entgegen. Die intendierte Nutzungspraxis würde auf diesem Wege vollständig ausgehöhlt".
"Nach Auffassung der Kammer wird die Anwendung des § 52b UrhG nicht bereits durch das
Vorliegen eines Vertragsangebots ausgeschlossen, wie dies die Antragstellerin
meint"
"Die Kammer verkennt nicht, dass durch die
vorstehende Auslegung den öffentlichen Bibliotheken eine sehr komfortabel
ausgestaltete Verhandlungsposition im Rahmen von Verhandlungen mit Verlagen
zugesprochen wird. Dies gebietet jedoch kein abweichendes Auslegungsergebnis,
insbesondere liegt kein Verstoß gegen den sog. Drei-Stufen-Test vor. Der Verlag
wird nicht unangemessen benachteiligt, insbesondere sind auch die öffentlichen
Bibliotheken im vorliegenden Fall gehalten, eine entsprechende Vergütung für die
gesetzliche Lizenz zu erstatten. Diese wird über die VG-Wort ausgehandelt und abgerechnet.
Auch stellt sich der hier in Streit stehende Eingriff im Verhältnis zu den
bereits seit Jahrzehnten geltenden Eingriffen gemäß § 53 Abs. 2 UrhG nicht als wesentlich
intensiver dar. Insbesondere die von Antragstellerseite aufgeführten Umsatzeinbußen
und Beeinträchtigungen des Verlagsangebots liegen nicht nahe und
waren bereits Gegenstand intensiver Diskussionen, welche das
Gesetzgebungsverfahren begleitet haben"
"Auch die beanstandete Digitalisierung der Werke ist von § 52b UrhG gedeckt.
Nach überwiegender Auffassung in der Literatur begründet § 52b UrhG eine Annex-
Berechtigung zur Vervielfältigung des Werkes. Um die Zugänglichmachung zu
ermöglichen, müssen die privilegierten Einrichtungen in aller Regel zunächst jedoch
ein dazu erforderliches digitales Vervielfältigungsstück herstellen. Ansonsten liefe die
fragliche Bestimmung weitgehend leer".
"Die Antragstellerin kann von der
Antragsgegnerin gem. § 97 I UrhG verlangen, es Nutzern nicht zu ermöglichen,
digitale Versionen der Werke, die im Verlag der Antragstellerin veröffentlicht sind, an
elektronischen Arbeitsplätzen auf USB-Sticks oder andere Träger für digitalisierte
Werke zu vervielfältigen bzw. diese Vervielfältigungen aus den Räumen der
Bibliothek mitzunehmen. Dagegen war das gegen die Möglichkeit eines Ausdrucks
der digitalisierten Werke gerichtete Unterlassungsbegehren zurückzuweisen".
"Nach dem Willen des Gesetzgebers soll der geschaffene § 52b UrhG eine Nutzung
ermöglichen, die der analogen Nutzung vergleichbar ist (BT-DS 16/1828, S. 26). Da
das Angebot hier im Wesentlichen auf wissenschaftliche Arbeit mit Texten gerichtet
ist, umfasst dies auch die Möglichkeit eines Ausdrucks. Eine sinnvolle Arbeit mit
längeren Texten setzt regelmäßig die Möglichkeit voraus, in etwaigen Kopien
zentrale Passagen des Textes zu markieren und diese in Auszügen auch aus der
Bibliothek zum weitergehenden Studium an anderen Ort mitzunehmen. Ließe das
Gesetz eine derartige Möglichkeit nicht zu, wäre das geschaffene Angebot einem
analogen Angebot nicht vergleichbar, sondern beschränkte sich wohl für die
überwiegende Anzahl der wissenschaftlichen Nutzer im Wesentlichen auf die
Möglichkeit einer Überprüfung von Zitaten....Das Gesetz
rechtfertigt in jedem Falle keine vollständige Kopie des Werkes, sondern lediglich
eine teilweise Ablichtung einzelner Passagen. Vor diesem Hintergrund erweisen sich
die besorgten Unterschiede nicht als derart intensiv. Sie sind vielmehr Folge und
auch Zweck der geschaffenen Neuregelung, welche einer Förderung der
Medienkompetenz der Bevölkerung dienen soll....Nach
dem eindeutigen Wortlaut des § 52b UrhG muss sich das Angebot auf eine Nutzung
in den Räumen der Bibliothek beschränken. Ließe man die Speicherung und
Mitnahme der Digitalisate selbst zu, würde – anders als bei der Mitnahme eines
Ausdrucks – eine Nutzung des geschaffenen Angebots auch außerhalb der Räumlichkeiten der Bibliothek ermöglicht. Dies ist durch die geschaffene Regelung
nicht mehr gedeckt".

Follow-on Drug Competition

Report by the FTC.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

AAI's Paper on Competition Issues in the Market for Natural Gas

The Potential Cartelization of Natural Gas: Challenges for Energy and Antitrust Policy, by Diana L. Moss

European Court of Justice on concerted practices

Judgment on "single meeting" and the presumption of a causal connection between the concerted practice and the market conduct of the participating undertakings. See the Court's press release and the actual ruling.

BGH über die Zulässigkeit des kartellrechtlichen «Zwangslizenzeinwandes»

Entscheidung vom 6.5.2009, KZR 39/06

ICN Conference in Zurich

Some results (Executive Summary).

Resale price maintenance sanctioned in Switzerland

In Switzerland this is the first decision in which sanctions have been imposed for resale price maintenance (RPM) (s. press release).

VG Wort, Google Settlement und das Aktionsbündnis "Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft".

Das Aktionsbündnis hält die jüngste Änderung des Wahrnehmungsvertrags der VG Wort für eine Gefährdung der Interessen von Bildung und Wissenschaft an einem in Sinne von Open Access freizügigen Zugriff zur wissenschaftlichen Literatur. Allen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern wird daher empfohlen , jene Änderung nicht zuzustimmen bzw. ihr zu widersprechen. "Wahrnehmungsberechtigte" haben nämlich die Möglichkeit, den Änderungen binnen einer Frist von sechs Wochen zu widersprechen; "Bezugsberechtigte" müssen sich mit den Änderungen einverstanden erklären.
Bemerkenswert ist auch die dabei angekündigte Absicht des Aktionsbündnisses, zu versuchen, "
mit Google zu einer Einigung zu kommen, nach der die freie Anzeige in Google Books erlaubt wird, eventuell auch mit Werbung, aber nur unter der Voraussetzung, dass dadurch keine neuen kommerziellen Verwertungsmodelle entstehen"

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Microsoft: Competition Investigation in Russia

Microsoft's practices (refusal to deal and price discrimination as possible abuses of dominant position) formally under scrutiny in Russia (s. also the original version of the press release).

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Korean Intel Decision: Summary of Translation

Highlights of the 2008 Decision by the American Antitrust Institute Research Fellow Byung-Geon Fee.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Transport public terrestre de voyageurs en France

Par sa Décision n° 09-SOA-01 du 18 mai 2009 la nouvelle Autorité de la concurrence se saisit d'office pour avis, afin d’examiner des questions rélatives à la concurrence dans le secteur des transports publics terrestres de voyageurs.

Google -Settlement und digitale Nutzungen von vergriffenen Werken

VG Wort nach der Änderungen ihres Wahrnehmungsvertrags:
- zieht die Vergütungsansprüche für die bis zum 5. Mai 2009 von Google digitalisierten Werke ein;
- zieht aber die in Deutschland erschienenen Werke aus dem Digitalisierungsprogramm von Google zurück;
- kann digitale Nutzungen von vergriffenen Werken lizenzieren, wenn die Rechteinhaber damit einverstanden sind (Google aber auch Träger von deutschen und europäischen Digitalisierungsprojekten kämen als Lizenznehmer in Betracht);
- kann digitale Vervielfältigungen zum ausschließlichen Zweck der Anzeige von bibliographischen Daten im Internet lizenzieren
.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Intel: Abuse of Dominant Position

According to the Commission, competition and innovation have been undermined on the x86 CPU market. In particular, Intel allegedly gave secret loyalty or fidelity rebates to spur the sale of its x86 central processing units (CPUs). Moreover Intel, according to the EU Commission's findings, made direct payments to computer manufacturers on the condition that they halted or delayed the launch of products containing competitors’ x86 CPUs.
See also a working paper prepared by the AAI comparing the European Intel Case with the U.S. Microsoft Cases.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

UK Merger Guidelines

Draft joint guidelines have been issued by the Competition Commission (CC) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

IP at the WTO

WTO's panel report on US-China dispute over intellectual property rights: Do we need new international measures to enforce IP rights?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

On the Economics of IP Rights

Trento, Economics Faculty, 19th December 2008: "How much should society fuel the greed of innovators? A critical assessment of the economics of intellectual property rights"Luigi Marengo, Laboratory of Economics and Management Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa.

John Vickers' Economics on Competition Policy and Financial Crisis

See the presentation held on December, 9. 

Monday, December 15, 2008

Competition Policy in "Interesting Times"

A pragmatic speech by Peter  Freeman, Chairman of the UK Competition Commission.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Monday, December 08, 2008

Merger Policy Amid Financial Crises/2

A Merger Action Group (MAG) has been created to challenge the Lloyds/HBOS merger (see previous post). The case brought by this interest group was however rejected by the Competition Appeal Tribunal. 

US Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies

Comments received by the US Copyright Office.

Competition Policy in a Global Perspective

 "A View from the Italian Competition Authority”, Dr. Alessandra Tonazzi, Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), Faculty of Economics, Trento, December, 12. 

Multilateral Register for Geographical Indications on Wines and Spirits?

Issue currently debated at the World Trade Organization. 
See the compromise document put forth by, inter alia, the EU. 

Monday, November 10, 2008

Merger Policy Amid Financial Crises

Lloyds/HBOS Merger cleared by the UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in spite of the competition concerns expressed by the Office of Fair Trading.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Interdiction de vente sur Internet des produits cosmétiques et d’hygiène corporelle sanctionnée

Selon le Conseil de la Concurrence, Décision n° 08-D-25 du 29 octobre 2008, "bien que la pratique d’interdiction de vente par Internet ne soit pas expressément visée dans le règlement communautaire, elle équivaut... à une interdiction de ventes actives et passives. En conséquence, pratiquée au sein d’un réseau de distribution sélective, elle constitue, en vertu du c) de l’article 4 du règlement une restriction caractérisée", et ne peut pas bénéficier d’une exemption individuelle sur le fondement du paragraphe 3 de l’article 81 du traité.

"New" Eligibility Criteria for Software Patents in the U.S.?

According to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Bernard L.Bilski and Rand A.Warsawthe language of Sec. 101 precludes protection of innovation which is not "transformational" or "properly linked to a machine". In the meanwhile, back in Europe, the President of the European Patent Office, Alison Brimelow, refers to the Enlarged Court of Appeal a socalled point of law comprising four questions  concerning the limits of patentability in the field of computing. 

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Deutscher Bundesrat: Kann ein starker Schutz geistigen Eigentums gleichzeitig bildungs- und wissenschaftsfreundlich sein?

Nachdem der deutsche Bundesrat sich bekanntlich  für die Schaffung eines bildungs- und wissenschaftsfreundlichen Urheberrechts eingesetzt hat, fordert er nun einen verstärkten Schutz geistigen Eigentums. 
Insbesondere hält der Bundesrat für notwendig, anhand von bilateralen Freihandelsabkommen der EU, "Mindeststandards zum Schutz des geistigen Eigentums zu verankern" und "Lücken von TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) bei der Umsetzung in nationale Rechtsordnungen zu schließen". Unter anderen müsste "eine stärkere Bewusstseinsbildung für die Werte des geistigen Eigentums geschaffen werden"

Friday, August 08, 2008

Remote Storage Video Recorder System and US Copyright Law

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has reversed a district court’s award of summary judgment to Cablevision, stating the the "Remote Storage” Digital Video Recorder system ("RS-DVR") proposed by the latter violated the Copyright Act by infringing plaintiffs’ exclusive rights of reproduction and public performance. In the case at issue, the RS-DVR system allows television users to record cable programming on central hard drives housed and maintained by Cablevision, an operator of cable television systems. RS-DVR customers may then receive playback of those programs through their home television sets, using only a remote control and a standard cable box equipped with the RS-DVR software. The customer can record programming by selecting a program in advance from an on screen guide, or by pressing the record button while viewing a given program. Once the program has begun, the customer cannot record earlier portions of it. If multiple people decided to record the same program, a separate copy would be made for each of them. Differently from stand-alone DVR set-top boxes, such as TiVo, recorded cable programming is then stored at a "remote" location, i.e. Cablevision's own servers. According to the Second Circuit, the operation of the RS-DVR system by Cablevision does not amount to direct copyright infringement.
The appeals court has considered a bundle of interesting questions, that we will briefly examine in turn.

First of all, the storage system at issue involves the the buffering of data, and the relevant question is whether this process could amount to an infringement of the reproduction right of the content providers (broadcast and cable channels) . In practical terms, the single stream of data gathered from the content providers is split into two: whereas the first is routed immediately to customers, the second "flows into a device called the Broadband Media Router (“BMR”) which buffers the
data stream, reformats it, and sends it to the “Arroyo Server,”, id at 7. This latter consists mainly of two data buffers and a number of high-capacity hard disks. After having moved the stream of data to the first buffer (the "primary ingest buffer"), the server automatically inquires as to whether any customers want to record any of that programming. Only in case the customer requests a particular program, "the data for that program move from the primary buffer into a secondary buffer, and then onto a portion of one of the hard disks allocated to that customer". In this respect, content is taken from the stream of programming and stored into the BMR and the first buffer independently from actual customer requests.
In order to constitute a copy as defined in US copyright law, the Second Circuit asserts that two conditions should be met: 1) the work should be embodied in a medium, in the sense that it could then be perceived, reproduced, etc., from that medium (briefly, copied from that medium); 2) the work must must remain thus embodied “for a period of more than transitory duration”.
Therefore, the storage of content per se results in “copying” only if it is not transitory. The appeals court thus runs counter the Copyright Office’s 2001 DMCA Report, according to which a word is “fixed” in a given medium if the work is capable of
being copied from that medium for any amount of time, i.e. also transitory. Works in the case at issue are “embodied” both in the BMR buffer and the primary ingest buffer (i.e. they can be copied, respectively, from the BRM buffer to other components of the RS-DVR system and from the primary ingest buffer onto the Arroyo hard disks), but are not “fixed” because
- “no bit of data remains in any buffer for more than a fleeting 1.2 seconds” and
- “each bit of data here is rapidly and automatically overwritten as soon as it is processed”.
-
Secondly, as regards the playback copy made on the hard disks of Cablevision’s Arroyo Server pursuant to a customer request, the question arises whether it is Cablevision who made that copy, and in that case there would be a direct infringement of copyright. According to the appeals court the decisive element should be the “volitional conduct that causes the copy to be made”. Since copies are made automatically upon the customer’s command, a RS-DVR user is similarly situated to a VCR user or to a customer using a photocopier. Cablevision would resemble a “a store proprietor who charges customers to use a photocopier on his premises, and it seems incorrect to say, without more, that such a proprietor “makes” any copies when his machines are actually operated by his customers”. Besides, Cablevision’s control over the content recorded by these customers is limited to the channels of programming available to a customer and not to the programs themselves (as it would be the case in the VOD context).

The final issue attains to the legal nature of the RS-DVR playback to a particular customer, in particular whether it should be considered as the transmission of a performance to the public and therefore an infringement of the content providers’ exclusive public performance rights. According to the Second Circuit, because the RS-DVR system only makes transmissions to one customer using a copy made by that customer, the “universe of people” capable of receiving a RS-DVR transmission is limited to that single customer. As the Court states,“the use of a unique copy may limit the potential audience of a transmission and is therefore relevant to whether that transmission is made to the public”, id. at 41.

See R.Kazemi,Online-TV-Recorder - nun auch in den USA vor dem Aus?,MMR 2007,5, VIII for some German court decisions on the remote recording of TV-programs and the recent WIZZGO decision by the Parisian Tribunal de Grande Instance.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Open Access for Fashion Design

Interesting use of Creative Commons Licences...The Berlin-based fashion label Pamoyo releases the designs for its clothes under a CC BY-NC-SA licence. Everybody is allowed to build upon Pamoyo's creations, provided that the new fashion design is released publicly under the same CC terms.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

EU Report on Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation: No Diversity in Distribution Formats

In its Evaluation Report on the operation of Regulation 1400/2002 concerning motor vehicle distribution and servicing, the European Commission comes to the conclusion that, as far as the goal of increasing competition between dealers by promoting diversity in distribution formats is concerned, this was far from achieved ( pp.5-6) - perhaps not unexpectedly, see a short comment I had written some time ago.

OLG Düsseldorf: Schadenersatzklage gegen Zementhersteller zugelassen

Das Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf hat am 14.05.2008 entschieden, dass die Schadenersatzklage einer Aktiengesellschaft belgischen Rechts (Cartel Damage Claims - CDC) wegen Kartellrechtsverstößen zulässig ist. Die Klägerin hatte sich sich von 36 zementbeziehenden Unternehmen Schadensersatzansprüche abtreten lassen. Nach Meinung des Gerichts habe die Klägerin die Berechnungsgrundlagen dargelegt und den Mindestschaden ausreichend beziffert. Hinzu kommt, dass das OLG für eine Revision vor dem Bundesgerichtshof keinen Anlass sieht. Daher wird nun das Landgericht über die Begründetheit der Klage entscheiden können.
Nach den Ermittlungen des Bundeskartellamtes hatten jegliche Zementhersteller in den Jahren 1993 bis 2002 Preise, Betriebswege und Absatzquoten abgesprochen und Zementimporten verhindert.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Carlo Piana on Competition, Interoperability and Free Software (Open Source)

Carlo Piana is legal counsel for the Free Software Foundation Europe. On June, 9 he will be in Trento, at the Economics Faculty, to talk about the aftermath of the Microsoft Court of First Instance's decision, and in particular about its relevance for the open source movement (Presentation, in Italian)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Trento Economics Festival 2008

The central topic will be "Market and Democracy". Among other speakers, Mario Monti and Oliver Hart. Streaming (web TV) here.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Lawrence Lessig's proposal on "orphan works"

Counter to a bill currently before the US Congress, foreseeing an excuse for copyright infringers from significant damages if they can prove that they made a "diligent effort" to find the copyright owner, Lawrence Lessig suggests in an article published in the New York Times that:
- the copyright owner, after a 14-year period, should be required to register a work with an approved, privately managed and competitive registry and pay $1
- this rule should not apply to foreign works, or to work created between 1978 and today
- photographs and other difficult-to-register works should be subject to this rule depending on the technology available, both to develop simple registration databases and to make research handy and reliable.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Conseil de la concurrence: exclusivité France Télécom-groupe France Télévisions pour la "télévision de rattrapage" licite

Au sujet des critères qui guident l’appréciation des effets des clauses d’exclusivité, le Conseil dans sa décision a considérés comme décisifs le "champ et de la durée de l’exclusivité ainsi que des justifications techniques ou des contreparties économiques de l’accord".
Même si l'exclusivité porte sur les programmes du type "premium", les opérateurs ADSL concurrents pourraient, selon le Conseil, "proposer à leurs clients d’autres services interactifs que ceux qui font l’objet du partenariat" ou "développer des partenariats avec les autres diffuseurs pour une diffusion en rattrapage de leurs programmes". Quant à la durée, de deux ans à compter du lancement du service, soit au plus tard à compter du 1er juillet 2008, elle n'est pas jugée "excessive".
En plus, le partenariat exclusif réponderait "à une logique économique pour toutes les parties concernées". Les produteurs seraient satisfaits parce que "France Télévisions est le premier opérateur qui les rémunère pour une diffusion en non linéaire". Les partenaires bénéficent "du financement des investissements représentés par l’acquisition des droits, des coûts techniques et des coûts de promotion"; grâce à l'exclusivité, ils sont aussi à mesure "de trouver des sources de financement nouvelles et de développer un service innovant" et de pallier l’incertitude sur la profitabilité des investissements. Pour les consommateurs aussi il y aurait des effets positifs, en particulier dans la mesure où l'exclusivité permet "dans un premier temps l’émergence d’un service innovant que les partenaires sont les premiers à proposer".

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Appeal against Skype GPL Munich court decision withdrawn

A district court in Munich (Landgericht München I) ruled in July 2007 that Skype had violated the GNU General Public Licence 2.0 because it had sold a SMC Networks Linux-based VoIP telephone (WSKP100) without providing both the copy of the license and the source code of the software. In particular, together with the product, there was only a leaflet pointing to an URL where the text of the license and "information on obtaining access to the GPL Code" could have been obtained, whereas according to art. 1 GPL v. 2.0, the licensee is required to "give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program". Moreover, art.3, par.1 together with par.3, requires the licensee to accompany the program/product either with the "complete corresponding machine-readable source code" or to offer access to copy the source code from a designated place, provided in the latter case that distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from the same place. Therefore, only if the binary had been made available in Internet for download, which was not the case, the offer to download the source code would have been in compliance with the GPL terms.
One of the appeal judges is cited to have said, as reported by Harald Welte's blog "if a publisher wants to publish a book of an author that wants his book only to be published in a green envelope, then that might seem odd to you, but still you will have to do it as long as you want to publish the book and have no other agreement in place". Skype's legal counsel thought it wise to withdraw the appeal.
Comment on the district court decision: Jörg Wimmers and Detlef Klett, Computer und Recht 2008, p. 59.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Event Studies and Competition Policy

Are the results provided by stock market event studies potentially delivering useful evidence to competition authorities? Probably not, according to a Paper published on the UK Competition Commission website.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

ICN: Recommended Practices on the Assessment of Dominance and Substantial Market Power adopted

This happened at the International Competition Network 2008 Conference, Kyoto. The Reccomended Practices have now been published on the ICN website.

FTC supports broader jurisdiction over non-profit

Testifying before Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on proposed ‘Federal Trade Commission Reauthorization Act of 2008, the Commission supported repealing FTC Act's exemption for certain non-profit entities, such as in health-care, see the Prepared Statement.

Comisión Nacional de la Competencia launches investigation on football television rights

In particular, the Spanish competition authority intends to investigate if agreements between media operators and football clubs have exclusionary effects. See CNC press release

UK Competition Commission: market investigation on the supply of groceries

A highly informative, 269-page Study.
Features that (still) prevent, restrict or distort competition:
- barriers to entry leading to highly concentrated local markets;
- buyer power, when "grocery retailers transfer excessive risks or unexpected costs to their suppliers".

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

New Antitrust Law in China

The new Antimonopoly Law (AML) will go into effect in August 2008. See a first comment by NERA consultants Fei Deng and Gregory Leonard. Cfr. also Lorenz, Moritz, The new Chinese Competition Act, In: European competition law review ; 29(2008), 257-263

Bundeskartellamt: Abwägungsklausel in der Fusionskontrolle angewendet

Laut einer Pressemitteilung der deutschen Wettbewerbsbehörde überwiegen bei der Übernahme von sieben Tochtergesellschaften der Orion Cable durch KDG die Vorteile für den Wettbewerb die Nachteile. Im Übrigen konnten die Zusammenschlussbeteiligten nachweisen, dass aufgrund des Zusammenschlusses Verbesserungen der Wettbewerbsbedingungen auf den Märkten für Breitbandanschlüsse (DSL) und für schmalbandige Anschlüsse eintreten werden.

Issues for Academic Authors, Institutional Repositories, Open Access Journals and End-Users

Paper by Brian Fitzgerald and Anthony Austin, presented at the Open Repositories Conference 2008. Commercial publishers to co-exist with open access publishing.

BITKOM Leitfaden zur Patentierung computerimplementierter Erfindungen

Der Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (Bitkom) hat einen 40 Seiten umfassenden Leitfaden erstellt, der IT-Erfindern bei Patenanträgen helfen soll.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

2004 EU Microsoft Decision: Third set of fines (€ 899 million) against Microsoft for non-compliance

Decision adopted under Article 24(2) of Regulation 1/2003.
According to the EU Commission, Microsoft charged unreasonable prices for access to interface documentation for work group servers during a period starting on 21 June 2006 to 21 October 2007. As from 22 October 2007 Microsoft changed its previous conditions, providing for a licence giving access to the interoperability information for a flat fee of €10 000 and an optional worldwide patent licence for a reduced royalty of 0.4 % of licensees’ product revenues. See also Commission MEMO/08/125 and the transcript (on Groklaw) of Neelie Kroes Statement.