Copyright Tribunal | |
---|---|
Established | 1988 |
Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
Location | Concept House Cardiff Road Newport NP10 8QQ |
Authorised by | Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 |
Appeals to | High Court of Justice (in England and Wales) Court of Session (in Scotland) High Court of Northern Ireland (in Northern Ireland) |
Website | www.gov.uk |
Chairman | |
Currently | HHJ Hacon |
The Copyright Tribunal is a first-instance tribunal in the United Kingdom with jurisdiction over commercial licensing disputes.
It was established by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. [1] The tribunal’s jurisdiction covers the whole of the UK.
On 20 March 2008 the Innovation, Universities and Skills Committee published its Second Report of Session 2007–08, ‘The work and operation of the Copyright Tribunal [HC 245]’ which sets out the tribunal responsibilities. [2]
In 2010 the Copyright Tribunal was listed as to be 'Abolished with Reservations' under the 2010 UK quango reforms. However, as of July 2023 it is still active. [1]
Its principal task is adjudicating disputes between collective licensing agencies (such as the Copyright Licensing Agency) and persons (natural or legal) who consider they have been unreasonably refused a licence or offered unreasonable terms. [3] [4]
Collective management organisations have the authority to license copyright works and collect royalties on behalf of their members. They collect royalty payments and distribute the royalties to the copyright owners. The disputes the tribunal is asked to resolve usually relate to the terms and conditions of licences, or the refusal by a collective management organisation to provide a licence. [5]
The tribunal does not sit often. Its last hearing was in 2021, and before that 2019. [6]
Parties are typically represented by legal advisors and counsel at hearings. However, legal representation is not a requirement, and the tribunal may permit other representation or, except in the case of a corporation or an unincorporated body, parties may present their own cases if they wish. [7]
Hearings of the tribunal are normally in public, and a transcript of the proceedings is usually taken. [7]
The tribunal consists of a panel of 1 chairman and 2 deputy chairmen who are appointed by the Lord Chancellor. Up to 8 ordinary lay members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology. [8]
The current members are:
The tribunal is administered by a secretary, who is a civil servant working in the Intellectual Property Office. However, the secretary plays no part in the decision making process and the tribunal carries out its work and comes to its decisions completely independently of the office or any other part of government.
The secretary acts as a formal channel of communication for the tribunal and all correspondence should be addressed to the secretary. [9]
Under the CDPA 1988, the Copyright Tribunal appeals to: [10]
A copyright collective is a non-governmental body created by copyright law or private agreement which licenses copyrighted works on behalf of the authors and engages in collective rights management. Copyright societies track all the events and venues where copyrighted works are used and ensure that the copyright holders listed with the society are remunerated for such usage. The copyright society publishes its own tariff scheme on its websites and collects a nominal administrative fee on every transaction.
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.
PRS for Music Limited is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertakes collective rights management for musical works on behalf of its 175,000 members. PRS for Music was formed in 1997 following the MCPS-PRS Alliance. In 2009, PRS and MCPS-PRS Alliance realigned their brands and became PRS for Music.
Reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms, also known as fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, denote a voluntary licensing commitment that standards organizations often request from the owner of an intellectual property right that is, or may become, essential to practice a technical standard. Put differently, a F/RAND commitment is a voluntary agreement between the standard-setting organization and the holder of standard-essential patents. U.S. courts, as well as courts in other jurisdictions, have found that, in appropriate circumstances, the implementer of a standard—that is, a firm or entity that uses a standard to render a service or manufacture a product—is an intended third-party beneficiary of the FRAND agreement, and, as such, is entitled to certain rights conferred by that agreement.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) have been acknowledged and protected in China since 1980. China has acceded to the major international conventions on protection of rights to intellectual property. Domestically, protection of intellectual property law has also been established by government legislation, administrative regulations, and decrees in the areas of trademark, copyright, and patent.
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Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in both England and Wales and Scotland that have statutory jurisdiction to hear disputes between employers and employees.
Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is a British music copyright collective. It is a private limited company that is registered in the UK. PPL was founded by Decca Records and EMI and incorporated on 12 May 1934, and undertakes collective rights management of sound recordings on behalf of its record-company members, and distributes the fees collected to both its record company members and performer members. As of 2022, PPL collected royalties for over 140,000 performers and recording rightsholders.
The multinational technology corporation Apple Inc. has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation and, like its competitors and peers, engages in litigation in its normal course of business for a variety of reasons. In particular, Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests. From the 1980s to the present, Apple has been plaintiff or defendant in civil actions in the United States and other countries. Some of these actions have determined significant case law for the information technology industry and many have captured the attention of the public and media. Apple's litigation generally involves intellectual property disputes, but the company has also been a party in lawsuits that include antitrust claims, consumer actions, commercial unfair trade practice suits, defamation claims, and corporate espionage, among other matters.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been governed by the Copyright Act 1956 (c. 74). It also creates an unregistered design right, and contains a number of modifications to the law of the United Kingdom on Registered Designs and patents.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) was formed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 in the state of Victoria, Australia. As part of the Victorian Justice system the tribunal sits 'below' the Magistrates Court in the court hierarchy. However the tribunal itself is not a court, not possessing any jurisdiction or powers beyond those conferred by statute. VCAT is less formal than a court and helps resolve disputes through mediations, compulsory conferences and formal hearings. The participation of lawyers or other legal representatives is not encouraged in some list areas, substantially reducing the cost of litigation. However some of the list areas will by necessity require parties to have some form of representation.
The Scottish Land Court is a Scottish court of law based in Edinburgh with subject-matter jurisdiction covering disputes between landlords and tenants relating to agricultural tenancies, and matters related to crofts and crofters. The Scottish Land Court is both a trial court and an appeal court; hearings at first-instance are often heard by a Divisional Court of one of the Agricultural Members advised by the Principal Clerk. Decisions of the Divisional Court can be appealed to the Full Court, which will consist of at least one legally qualified judicial member and the remaining Agricultural Member. Some cases are heard at first-instance by the Full Court, and these cases may be appealed to the Inner House of the Court of Session.
Crown copyright is a type of copyright protection. It subsists in works of the governments of some Commonwealth realms and provides special copyright rules for the Crown, i.e. government departments and (generally) state entities. Each Commonwealth realm has its own Crown copyright regulations. There are therefore no common regulations that apply to all or a number of those countries. There are some considerations being made in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand regarding the "reuse of Crown-copyrighted material, through new licences".
Under the law of the United Kingdom, a copyright is an intangible property right subsisting in certain qualifying subject matter. Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended from time to time. As a result of increasing legal integration and harmonisation throughout the European Union a complete picture of the law can only be acquired through recourse to EU jurisprudence, although this is likely to change by the expiration of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK has left the EU on 31 January 2020. On 12 September 2018, the European Parliament approved new copyright rules to help secure the rights of writers and musicians.
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Alberta (Education) v Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency , 2012 SCC 37, is a Supreme Court of Canada case that considered whether the photocopying of textbook excerpts by teachers, on their own initiative, to distribute to students as part of course materials is fair dealing pursuant to the provisions of the Copyright Act. The Supreme Court, in a 5/4 split, concluded that the Copyright Board made several errors in its analysis of the "fairness factors". Thus, it allowed the appeal and remitted the matter back to the Copyright Board for reconsideration.
Canadian Artists' Representation v National Gallery of Canada, 2014 SCC 42 is a landmark case of the Supreme Court of Canada on the nature of bargaining in good faith. It also has an effect on the nature of negotiations for royalties that may be due to artists under Canada's Copyright Act.
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