The CJEU Mio/konektra referrals: An insider’s view

About

When is a work of applied art protected by copyright? How is originality to be assessed? What is the test to apply to determine copyright infringement?

These are questions that go to the very heart of copyright law. They are also currently pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the joined referrals for a preliminary ruling Mio, C‑580/23 and konektra, C‑795/23.

Last May, Advocate General Szpunar issued his Opinion, advising the CJEU to rule that works of applied art shall be protectable upon fulfilling the sole requirement of originality, the assessment of which depends on the circumstances at hand. He also advised the Court to move from an originality-based infringement test to one based on recognizability.

The CJEU is due to issue its judgment in these seminal cases on 4 December.

How did the referrals come to be? Why did the courts in Sweden and Germany decide to seek the guidance of the CJEU? And what happened during the hearing?

Join us for a session in which the lawyer advising and representing the claimant company (Asplund) in the background Swedish proceedings, Mr Henrik Wistam (Westerberg & Partners), will bring us behind the scenes and tell us how the case developed and was pleaded.

The session is organized by Prof. Eleonora Rosati and is part of the module “Copyright and Transborder Litigation” in the LLM in European Intellectual Property Law at Stockholm University. Due to the importance of the topic, the session is exceptionally open to anyone to attend. This is an unmissable opportunity for copyright lawyers and students to learn more about a key case for the further construction of the EU copyright architecture.

You can join us in person at Stockholm University or online via Zoom.

The speaker

Henrik Wistam is the Chairman of Westerberg & Partners in Stockholm. He has over 25 years of experience litigating IP disputes before national courts, the EUIPO and the Swedish Patent and Trademark Office, including cases concerning claims for IP infringements, parallel imports, counterfeiting, unfair competition, false advertising and the protection of shape, colour, and position trademarks.

Henrik has worked extensively with clients in a broad range of industries including fashion and luxury goods, media, sports and entertainment, financial services, pharmaceuticals, electronics, cable and internet services, and the toy and automotive industries. He is regularly involved in the co-ordination of proceedings with parallel actions in different jurisdictions.

Henrik graduated from Stockholm University (LL.M.) in 1996 and has been a member of the Swedish Bar Association since 2002. He is the former President of the Swedish Anti-Counterfeiting Group and a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Stockholm University and Uppsala University.