EU Court confirms that copyright is limited to code, not its function

As reported by my partner, Ron Moscona, according to the recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) in SAS Institute Inc. (“SAS Institute”) v World Programming Ltd (“WPL”), the defendant did not infringe the claimant’s copyright by effectively reverse engineering the SAS software and writing a new program closely emulating the functionality of the SAS software. The decision of the ECJ lays down an important statement of principles in relation to the extent to which copyright protects computer programs (but not their functionality) under European Union law, although in respect of some practical aspects of the matter the Court’s decision fails to provide useful guidance.


Check out Ron's full article on this case by clicking here.


Thanks, Ron!

The "First Sale Doctrine" in Copyright Cases - Omega S.A. v. Costco

Normally, the Point of Novelty stays on point with patent issues.  But, today we digress a bit...

A good discussion of Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., which addresses the issue of the first sale doctrine in the context of copyright cases can be found in an article recently written by my Dorsey colleagues, Bob Wasnofski and Jose Hernandez.  Here is a sample of the article:

On December 13, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a split decision (due to Justice Kagan’s recusal) in Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 562 U.S. ___ (2010), thereby affirming the 9th Circuit ruling that the “first sale doctrine” does not serve as a defense to copyright infringement where one imports into the United States genuine, foreign-made copies of a copyrighted work without the authorization of the copyright owner. As it was a split decision, however, it does not serve as nationwide precedent. Nevertheless, in the 9th Circuit, the “first sale” defense can be used only in situations where the disputed copies of a copyrighted work are either made or previously sold in the United States with the authority of the copyright owner. As such, copyright owners of foreign-made copies are afforded significant protection in the 9th Circuit against the importation of “grey market” goods, allowing them greater control over the distribution and price of their products.

Click here to read the full article.