Originality in a Work, or a Work of Originality: The effects of the infopaq decision

Abstract

The issue of further harmonisation of copyright at the EU level is currently at the centre of heated debates concerning its desirability and feasibility as such. In the course of 2010 alone, the Wittem Group published its European Copyright Code and the Monti Report addressed the role of copyright in the light of proposing a new strategy for the internal market. However, so far, no decisive legislative actions have been taken at the EU level to address the future of copyright. Despite this impasse, the Court of Justice has acted in a proactive way towards the actual harmonisation of copyright. The decision in Infopaq, as later followed in Bezpe%24cnostní softwarová asociace, has provided the harmonisation of a fundamental principle of copyright, i.e., the originality requirement. The impact of these judgments on the copyright laws of the Member States is likely to be relevant, as made clear (even if just in part) by the ruling of the High Court (England and Wales) in Meltwater, recently upheld by the Court of Appeal for England and Wales. However, the actual implications of CJEU's decisions have yet to be fully worked out: the Football Dataco reference stands as a demonstration of the doubts and ambiguities that Infopaq has cast on the overall architecture of EU copyright.