Last March, the European Parliament finally approved the regulation designed to protect cultural goods against smuggling and to put a stop to a source of terrorist financing. Before now, there were no universal EU laws governing imports of cultural heritage. The only European legislation on the trade of cultural goods concerned exports and the return …
Author: Kim Goudzwaard
The First Case of the Beijing Internet Court
On October 30th, 2018, the recent Beijing Internet Court heard its first case on copyright ownership and infringement, “Tik Tok Video” vs. “HuoPai Video”. The case was filed on September 11th, 2018 by ByteDance, the parent company of Tik Tok, who initiated the lawsuit against the video platform HuoPai by Baidu Technologies. ByteDance contends that …
Russia: A New Future For Fashion?
As of June 26th 2019, the Russian Federation will begin to enforce a newly-adopted bill expanding its legal protections to industrial designs under the “amendments to Part IV of the Civil Code”, most notably for the fashion industry. In an effort to emulate the European Union’s robust protections for fashion designers and brands, Russia has …
“Copyright is for losers”…but it could be useful
Banksy went to Court and partially won. “Copyright is for losers” once wrote the secretive street artist ironically, however, a few weeks ago Pest Control (the company responsible for managing Banksy’s artworks) sued an Italian company for trademark infringement. The Italian company 24 Ore Cultura organized an exhibition – The Art of Banksy. A visual …
Droit de Suite – The Buyer Pays the Bill
Christie’s wins battle for a new interpretation of the “Droit de Suite” regulation in France. A recent decision of the French Supreme Court[1] is going to overturn the law in France that requires the Artist’s Resale Right (Droit de Suite) being paid by vendors. The resale right forms an integral part of copyright and is …
Has a new wave on restitution of cultural objects started?
The trend is toward considering the exhibits provenance in museums and galleries across Europe Working in The Hague, being involved in the subject of Art Law, my mind goes to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. An excellent combination, working here where the first use …
CNIL Sanctions Google 50 Million Euros for Non-Compliance to the GDPR
On May 25th, 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force. From that date forth, companies were required to comply with the text in order to best protect citizens’ personal data within the European Union. In France, it is the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) which monitors the compliance of companies with the …
Xi Jinping visits Macron to strengthen China-EU relationship
On the third day of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to France, the French President Emmanuel Macron took the unprecedented step of establishing a united European front to compete with China’s global hegemony, specifically China’s One Belt One Road strategy. Macron invited EU leaders Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker to join the meeting with Xi. …
Blockchain Evidence Technology Recognised, is the Blockchain Court Far Away?
In the discussion on blockchain technology, you may have heard of blockchain evidence technology. What is blockchain evidence technology? Well, it is a kind of electronic evidence, which contains the three characteristics, the same as normal evidence: legality, relevance and objectivity, as well as the third-party notarization, decentralised structure, timestamp record, low cost, high credibility and other …
China to Establish the Second and Third Internet Court
The Internet has become the second space in human life, changing people’s production and lifestyle, refreshing the concept of law, judicial practice and public demand for court services. The characteristics of virtuality, cross-regionality, and decentralization of the Internet have created enormous challenges to the existing legal theory and judicial system. Parties who are used to …