2012 Yearbook of Case Law

The 2nd edition of the Yearbook of European Case Law on Industrial and Intellectual Property continues the project launched in 2011, bringing together 38 representative cases from the past year. The selection includes decisions from the Court of Justice and the General Court, the Spanish Court for Community Trademarks and Community Designs, the Supreme Court, and the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office.

This overview of various industrial and intellectual property rights examines issues such as the territorial scope of the EU trademark, the identification of goods and services, the resale of software licenses, private copying, database protection, supplementary protection certificates, cross-border patent litigation, and the invalidation of designs.

Each case is presented with an explanation of the Facts, the Rulings, and a Commentary that helps clarify its practical implications.

The result is a detailed overview of the main legal debates of 2012 and of how certain essential rules of European industrial and intellectual property law have gradually taken shape.