In November 2013, the European Commission published a proposal for a directive on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets). A second version of this proposal, already amended by the Council in May 2014, gained the approval of the Committee on Legal Affairs...

The judiciary fulfils a central role in relation to intellectual property enforcement. The EU Commission's public consultation of December 2015 contains a specific subsection devoted to specialized courts, asking whether legal action at a court specialized in intellectual property provides an...

The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is an institute devoted to education and research in intellectual property and is a constituent part of the University of Strasbourg. CEIPI analyses and comments the main developments in the area of intellectual property at...

In the past years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, or Strasbourg Court), Europe's principal human rights watchdog, has played an ever larger role in the resolution of intellectual property (IP) disputes. The ECtHR's engagement in IP adjudication has already influenced national judges,...

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the secrecy of its negotiation process have given rise to widespread speculation on the content and the objectives of the Agreement, leading to the development of considerable mistrust among the general public. This article concentrates on one...

The social function is inherent to any legal rule. It allows for the rights of individuals to be weighed against competing rights. Being part of a broader legal system, these rights must always be put in context with other rights of equal value and with collective interests. Insisting on the...

In recent years, intellectual property enforcement by ordering Internet access providers to block infringing websites has been rapidly evolving in Europe. Understandable from the perspective of rightholders searching for the most efficient ways to stop infringing activities, this increasing...

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive) might fundamentally change the way works and other subject matter protected by copyright will be used on online platforms. Article 17 of the Directive obliges such platforms, based on information they receive from...