With reports from all major jurisdictions where the responsibility of facilitators and intermediaries for copyright and trade mark infringement have been litigated, this very useful book is the first comprehensive global survey of the liability regime that intermediaries may face when assisting others to directly infringe copyright and trade mark rights, or when providing others with the means to do so. It addresses such issues as the following: ISP liability; contributory and secondary liability for trade mark, copyright, and patent infringement; time- and geo-shifting devices and services; consumer identification through dynamic IP addresses; infringements committed on a “commercial scale”; liability of hosting providers; requirements for a breach of duty of care; notice to users to refrain from infringements; filters and other due diligence measures; “actual knowledge”; privacy and infringers’ personal data; file sharing services; online storage services; and liability of transporters and freighters. After a general introduction analysing relevant aspects of trade mark and copyright law, local experts provide detailed reports on positions in the EU (at the Community level), Germany, France, Italy, The United States, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. As well as dealing with the issues, each report pays close attention to case law, legislative developments, and procedural issues of injunctive relief and damages. A final chapter covers comparative contributory patent infringement. Along with the very practical value the book offers corporate counsel charged with IP rights litigation, the authors shed light on the fundamental issue of whether attempts to broaden liability in this area are compatible with established IP principles such as territoriality, freedom to operate, and freedom of competition. As a result, the book will be welcomed by a wide spectrum of lawyers and others working in this rapidly growing field, including practitioners, policymakers, academics, and jurists.

This Chapter addresses the uncertainty and the still unclear judicial standards for assessing contributory trademark infringement in the United States. The Chapter proceeds as follows. Part II outlines the developments of the doctrine of contributory trademark infringement, first in the brick-and-mortar world and subsequently in the online context. Based upon this analysis, Part III criticizes the uncertainty that surrounds the application of the judicial standards to determine contributory infringement, particularly in the online market place. Part III also attempts to provide some explanations for the current judicial decisions and highlights that courts seem to apply a “we know it when we see it” standard to identify contributory trademark infringers. Notably, Part III states that courts seem to distinguish between intermediaries who acted in “good faith” and who are generally not held liable for contributory infringement, and intermediaries who acted in “bad faith” and profited from the infringement, and who are held liable for contributory infringement. Part III concludes that although this judicial line of reasoning may prevent broader liability for “good” intermediaries, all intermediaries and legal operators would benefit from a clearer interpretation of the current standards in this important area of trademark law.

Internet intermediaries play a central role in modern commerce and the dissemination of ideas. Although their economic and social importance is well-recognized, their legal liability remains poorly understood, and, until now, no work has specifically addressed their legal responsibility for wrongdoing carried out by third parties using their facilities or platforms. This work fills that gap by providing comprehensive coverage of the legal duties owed by intermediaries and the increasingly complex schemes that regulate their activities. The first part of the work introduces the concept of an internet intermediary, general doctrines of primary and secondary liability, and the European enforcement regime. The second part examines the liability of intermediaries in specific areas of law, with a detailed analysis of the applicable liability rules, and the major English case law, and decisions of the Court of Justice that interpret and apply them. The final part of the work provides guidance on remedies and limitations. Written by an expert author from the intellectual property chambers at 8 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, this is an essential guide for lawyers advising on IP matters and disputes involving internet content.

In step with its rapid progress to the centre of modern social, political, and economic life, the internet has proven a convenient vehicle for the commission of unprecedented levels of copyright infringement. Given the virtually insurmountable obstacles to successful pursuit of actual perpetrators, it has become common for intermediaries –providers of internet-related infrastructure and services – to face liability as accessories. Despite advances in policy at the European level, the law in this area remains far from consistently applicable. This is the first book to locate and clarify the substantive rules of European intermediary accessory liability in copyright and to formulate harmonised European norms to govern this complicated topic. With a detailed comparative analysis of relevant regimes in three major Member State jurisdictions – England, France, and Germany – the author elucidates the relationship between these rules and the demands of EU law on fundamental rights and the principles of European tort law. She clearly presents the interrelations between such areas as the following: - accessory liability in tort; - joint tortfeasance; - European fault-based liability: fault, causation, defences; - negligence; - negligence balancing: rights-based or utility-based?; - Germany’s “disturbance liability” (Störerhaftung); - fair balance in human rights; - end-users’ fundamental rights; - The European Commission’s 2015 Communication on a Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe; - The E-Commerce Directive and other relevant provisions; - Safe harbours: mere conduit, caching, hosting; - Intermediary actions: monitoring, filtering, blocking, removal of infringing content; and - application of remedies: damages and injunctions. The strong points of each national system are highlighted, as are the commonalities between them, and the author uses these to build a proposed harmonised European framework for intermediary liability for copyright infringement. She concludes with suggestions for the future possible integration of the proposed framework into EU law. The issue of the liability of internet intermediaries for third party copyright infringement has entered into the political agenda across the globe, giving rise to one of the most complex, contentious, and fascinating debates in modern copyright law. This book offers an opportunity for a re-conceptualisation and rationalisation of the applicable law, in a way which additionally better accounts for the cross-border nature of the internet. It will be of inestimable value to many interested parties – lawyers, internet intermediaries, NGOs, policymakers, universities, libraries, researchers, lobbyists – in matters regarding the information society.

This book employs a comparative approach to comprehensively discuss hosting ISPs’ (Internet Service Providers') responsibilities for copyright infringement in the US, EU and China. In particular, it details how the current responsibility rules should be interpreted or revised so as to provide hosting ISPs maximum freedom to operate in these jurisdictions. In addition to examining relevant state regulations, the book assesses self-regulation norms agreed upon between copyright owners and hosting ISPs, and concludes that self-regulation is better suited to preserving hosting ISPs’ freedom to operate. The results of this study will be interesting for a broad readership, including academics and practitioners whose work involves hosting ISPs’ copyright responsibilities.

This book provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and state-of-the-art discussion of fundamental legal issues in intermediary liability online, while also describing advancement in intermediary liability theory and identifying recent policy trends.

Despite the apparent advantages of the internet, there is little debate that it facilitates intellectual property infringements, including infringements of trade mark rights. Infringers not only remain hidden by the anonymity the internet provides but also take advantage of its increasing reach and the associated challenges with regard to cross-border enforcement of rights. These factors, among others, have rendered the internet a growing source of counterfeit and other infringing products. It has, therefore, become necessary for right holders to shift their focus from individual infringers to internet intermediaries, such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hosts and navigation providers, which are responsible in numerous ways for making content promoting infringements available to internet users. In light of these developments, this book conducts a comprehensive analysis of the liability of such intermediaries for trade mark infringements and considers the associated issues and challenges in the diverging approaches under which liability may be imposed. At present, however, neither UK trade mark law nor English common-law principles relating to accessorial liability provide a basis to hold internet intermediaries liable for trade mark infringements. As such, this book considers approaches adopted in some of the Continental European countries and the US in order to propose reforms aimed at addressing gaps in the existing legal framework. This book also examines alternative remedies, such as notice and takedown and injunctions, and discusses the associated shortcomings of each of these remedies.