Holding Internet Intermediaries Accountable For Infringements Of Trademark Rights

The proposal for legal reforms identifies the class of intermediaries against whom, and the circumstances in which, such monetary relief should be made available. Consequential legal reforms are proposed in order to counter the potential abuse of notice-and-takedown procedures, which this thesis identifies as a direct consequence of the interplay between the proposed liability framework and the EU safe harbour that limits such liability. The last substantive part of the thesis considers injunctive relief as a means of holding internet intermediaries accountable for making infringing content available to internet users. This part sets out how injunctions have been utilised in the UK against ISPs, and identifies key challenges underpinning this remedy, while also considering its application to other types of intermediaries. Having considered comparable approaches in Chile, Singapore and Australia, recommendations are made for suitable legal reforms to the EU legal framework, which has hitherto shaped the development of UK law in this regard. These suggested reforms are aimed at overcoming the challenges associated with the injunctive remedy, while promoting it as an effective way of holding internet intermediaries accountable for making content that infringes trademark rights available to internet users.

Despite the apparent advantages of the internet, there is little debate that it facilitates intellectual property infringements, including infringements of trade mark rights. Infringers not only remain hidden by the anonymity the internet provides but also take advantage of its increasing reach and the associated challenges with regard to cross-border enforcement of rights. These factors, among others, have rendered the internet a growing source of counterfeit and other infringing products. It has, therefore, become necessary for right holders to shift their focus from individual infringers to internet intermediaries, such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hosts and navigation providers, which are responsible in numerous ways for making content promoting infringements available to internet users. In light of these developments, this book conducts a comprehensive analysis of the liability of such intermediaries for trade mark infringements and considers the associated issues and challenges in the diverging approaches under which liability may be imposed. At present, however, neither UK trade mark law nor English common-law principles relating to accessorial liability provide a basis to hold internet intermediaries liable for trade mark infringements. As such, this book considers approaches adopted in some of the Continental European countries and the US in order to propose reforms aimed at addressing gaps in the existing legal framework. This book also examines alternative remedies, such as notice and takedown and injunctions, and discusses the associated shortcomings of each of these remedies.

All forms of online communications and interactions between people and companies on the Internet are facilitated by intermediaries – service providers whose decisions and policies have a shaping effect on the Internet, its users and the information shared on it. Today, because such intermediaries employ technologies that go well beyond the mere transmission and storage of information into new realms potentially disrupting existing business models, a rethinking of existing relevant law is called for. The legal analysis and recommendations in this book put the topic of intermediary liability in the perspective of copyright law and offer a vision on how to regulate that liability. In the context of in-depth and up-to-date analyses on EU, US, German and Dutch law, the author discusses such issues and topics as the following: the liability rules in the new Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market; liability for the intermediary’s own copyright infringements (primary liability); the intermediary’s responsibility to stop or prevent the infringements of others (secondary liability); the role that fundamental rights play in copyright law and intermediary liability; the rights and interests of copyright owners, intermediaries and users, and how they are protected; notice-and-takedown by service providers; website blocking by Internet access providers; the publisher’s rights and the use of online articles by platforms; legal status of hyperlinks under copyright law; and search engine use of copyrighted materials. A focus on the strengths and weaknesses of existing EU copyright law concerning Internet intermediaries in terms of how future-proof that law is, includes detailed attention to legislation, regulation and case law. With its deeply informed guidance with respect to the methods of regulation in a domain that is heavily influenced by technological developments, this book will be welcomed by policymakers, legislators, academics, judges and practitioners working in the area of copyright law as applied to the Internet. The detailed attention to the extent to which an intermediary can be held liable for copyright infringements in both the EU and the US will prove highly beneficial for in-house counsellors and advisors working for rights holder organizations and intermediary service providers.

This study aims to identify the trends and principles governing the changing role of Internet intermediaries, summarizing the evolution of business models and outlining the complex issues to be considered in developing public policy in this field.

To better understand the heterogeneity of the international online intermediary liability regime, The Oxford Handbook of Intermediary Liability Online is designed to provide a comprehensive, authoritative and 'state-of-the-art' discussion of by highlighting emerging trends. This book discusses fundamental legal issues in intermediary liability online, while also describing advancement in intermediary liability theory and identifying recent policy trends. Sections I and II provide a taxonomy of internet platforms, a general discussion of possible basis for liability and remedies, while putting into context intermediary liability regulation with fundamental rights and the ethical implications of the intermediaries' role. Section III presents a jurisdictional overview discussing intermediary liability safe harbour arrangements and highlighting issues with systemic fragmentation and miscellaneous inconsistent approaches. Mapping online intermediary liability worldwide entails the review of a wide-ranging topic, stretching into many different areas of law and domain-specific solutions. Section IV provides an overview of intermediate liability for copyright, trademark, and privacy infringement, together with Internet platforms' obligations and liabilities for defamation, hate and dangerous speech. Section V reviews intermediary liability enforcement strategies by focusing on emerging trends, including proactive monitoring obligations across the entire spectrum of intermediary liability subject matters, blocking orders against innocent third parties, and the emergence of administrative enforcement of intermediary liability online. In addition, Section VI discusses an additional core emerging trend in intermediary liability enforcement: voluntary measures and private ordering. Finally, international private law issues are addressed in Section VII with special emphasis on the international struggle over Internet jurisdiction and extra-territorial enforcement of intermediaries' obligations.

This book critically evaluates the EU regulatory framework for the liability of host Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for copyright and trade mark infringements and provides a cluster of novel recommendations for its improvement. The book recommends the imposition of a duty of care to host ISPs to curb the dissemination of unauthorised works and counterfeit goods, the ascription of a transparency obligation to host ISPs towards their users, and the establishment of a supervisory authority for host ISPs. Host ISPs have facilitated the dissemination of content amongst users and the purchase of goods online, enabling copyright holders and brand owners to attract a greater audience for their works and goods. However, their services have attracted a high number of copyright and trade mark violations, too. Neither Article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive nor Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive provide a solid response to the issue of host ISPs' liability. This book is a valuable resource for researchers in IT and IP law and offers a new perspective for resolving online IP disputes.

The recent history of intermediary liability decisions in copyright and trademark law reflects a notable resistance to rules that might constrain judicial discretion to ferret out bad guys. Indeed, a dichotomy appears to be emerging between two types of defendants: those who want infringement to happen and those who do not. In both copyright and trademark cases, courts are developing two distinct sets of rules to deal with two different classes of intermediaries. Good-faith intermediaries -- those with a core business model unrelated to infringement -- have an obligation to address infringement upon notice, but need not go out of their way to root it out; a reactive approach will suffice to protect them from liability. Bad-faith intermediaries, on the other hand -- those who not only benefit from infringement, but intend it to happen -- face certain liability, without regard to specific notice of particular acts of infringement. The trick, of course, lies in understanding how to differentiate between good and bad faith actors. Doctrinally, copyright courts are turning to inducement to do the sorting. Inducers, as bad actors, get none of the protections afforded to other infringement-enabling intermediaries. And inducers are those whose business model depends, at its core, on infringement. Far from defying Sony, I view this development as fully consistent with the normative goal laid out by the Supreme Court in defending the staple article of commerce doctrine: “[t]he staple article of commerce doctrine must strike a balance between a copyright holder's legitimate demand for effective -- not merely symbolic -- protection of the statutory monopoly, and the rights of others freely to engage in substantially unrelated areas of commerce.”

A New Framework for Intermediary Liability presents a step-by-step framework for determining when internet intermediaries ought to have a duty to act to prevent copyright infringement on their platforms and services. This timely book argues that intermediary liability for copyright infringement should be focused on an intermediary's actual responsibility for primary infringement and not simply its capacity to assist copyright owners in challenging infringement. Drawing on long-standing principles in the law of negligence, Kylie Pappalardo argues for a brand-new way to understand intermediary copyright liability and offers a means to distinguish innocent and responsible intermediaries at an early stage. Pappalardo reasons that a duty to act should only arise where the intermediary has causally contributed to the risk of infringement or where they have real and actual control over the actions of primary infringers. With astute consideration of the links between tort law and copyright, this book will be a compelling read for copyright scholars and researchers interested in intellectual property and technology law. Judges, lawyers and policymakers looking for guidance on how to define intermediary liability for copyright infringement will also find helpful direction in this book.

This book explores the contributory liability of Internet intermediaries that arises from trademark infringements committed by third parties on the Internet, providing a comprehensive analysis of the law applicable to the matter in an EU context. It also considers the applicable laws of Germany and England to demonstrate how the rules are implemented in national laws, as the current state of the law is two-tiered. In providing a framework of the law applicable to online contributory trademark liability, the book also addresses ongoing and emerging issues that are specific to trademark law and proposes specific solutions to the issues arising in the context of online contributory trademark liability. The liability of Internet intermediaries has been a popular and lively subject from different substantive rights' angles. However, trademark law has not received a great deal of attention from either scholars or legislators. As such, this book fills a gap in the literature by undertaking a trademark-specific examination, and will be of great interest to all those involved in the research and legal practice of trademark law.

This book analyses the doctrinal structure and content of secondary liability rules that hold internet service providers liable for the conduct of others, including the safe harbours (or immunities) of which they may take advantage, and the range of remedies that can be secured against such providers. Many such claims involve intellectual property infringement, but the treatment extends beyond that field of law. Because there are few formal international standards which govern the question of secondary liability, comprehension of the international landscape requires treatment of a broad range of national approaches. This book thus canvasses numerous jurisdictions across several continents, but presents these comparative studies thematically to highlight evolving commonalities and trans-border commercial practices that exist despite the lack of hard international law. The analysis presented in this book allows exploration not only of contemporary debates about the appropriate policy levers through which to regulate intermediaries, but also about the conceptual character of secondary liability rules.