BLACA 12 September 2013

Originality Revisited: The

CJEU and UK Copyright
Law
Dr Andreas Rahmatian
University of Glasgow, School of Law
Skill and Labour > < Creativity?
Infopaq International v. Danske Dagblades Forening [2009]
ECDR 16 (Case C-5/08)

Bezpenostn softwarov asociace v. Svaz softwarov ochrany

v Ministerstvo kultury [2011] FSR 18 (Case C-393/09)

Painer v. Standard Verlags GmbH, Axel Springer AG,

Sddeutsche Zeitung GmbH, Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein
GmbH & Co. KG, Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg Expedition der
Klnischen Zeitung GmbH & Co KG [2012] ECDR 6 (C-145/10)

Football Dataco Ltd and others v. Yahoo! UK Ltd and others 2

[2012] 2 CMLR 24 (Case C-604/10).
ECJ/CJEU Interpretation of
Originality
Own intellectual creation

choice, sequence and combination of words

that the author may express his creativity in an
original manner and achieve a result that is an
intellectual creation (Infopaq, para. 45)

The author has free and creative choices in several

ways and at several points in its production, and can
thereby stamp the work created with its personal 3
touch (Painer, paras. 90, 92)
Authors Rights Originality
Germany, s. 2(2) UrhG: personal intellectual
creation
France: marque de la personnalit de lauteur,
lempreinte de la personnalit de lauteur
= is not the EU notion of own intellectual
creation what is the EU notion of originality?
AND (e.g. in France):
des uvres du langage de caractre technique et des
compilations utilitaires dans lesquels la marque de la
personnalit de lauteur nest pas vidente. (Lucas 2006, p. 75)
(also: kleine Mnze, neighbouring rights etc.) 4
New Copyright-Originality?
Skill, labour, effort and judgement (GB)
?? = COPYRIGHT SYSTEM

Personal intellectual creation (D) ?? =

AUTHORS RIGHT SYSTEM

Arguably neither: Originality is a

definition resting on further definitions 5
Possible definition for EU-influenced new UK
Copyright-Originality:

A creation is protected by copyright if it constitutes an

original work that is recorded in some permanent form.

Originality means that a sufficient amount of skill, labour

and/or judgement has gone into the work in such a way
that through the choices, selection and arrangement in
the making of the work the author gives the work a
modicum of individuality and so renders it his/her own
intellectual creation.
(A. Rahmatian, Originality in UK Copyright Law: The Old Skill and 6
Labour Doctrine Under Pressure, 44 IIC (2013) pp. 4-34, at p. 30)
Contact Details

Dr. Andreas Rahmatian

School of Law
University of Glasgow, UK

Email:
andreas.rahmatian@glasgow.ac.uk 7