Story of a recent decision in a copyright infringement case in favor of Živković Samardžić’s client has been making the rounds in the IP related industry publications. As reported here earlier, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade has found that re-use of the copyrighted work by the news website without prior authorization does not constitute a copyright infringement, due to its falling within the current events exception. The copyrighted work concerned was a photograph taken on the spot where the traffic accident leaving seven people injured had occurred a few minutes earlier and the Court has found that re-use of the photograph was justified by the informatory purpose of the reporting on the traffic accident as a current event.
The IPPro The Internet, a publication for news, views and opinion on intellectual property online, in an article authored by Bogdan Ivanišević and Marko Popović, found that “the Appellate Court’s interpretation of the current events exception in [the decision] is creative and adds a dash of freshness to the otherwise unexciting case law in Serbia on copyright in photographs“, while the Kluwer Copyright Blog (KCRB), a publication of Kluwer Law International providing information and news on European copyright law, in an article authored by Bojana Kostić, argued that “the new principles established by the Serbian Appeal Court could be seen as a possible route for defining the scope of the press exception and achieving a fair balance between the competing rights of authors and the public interest in the receipt of information, including media freedom”.
“Landmark court decisions are not created out of thin air. That never happens. They are made of ingredients such as hard work and out of the box thinking. Here at Živković Samardžić, while creating an enabling environment for talented lawyers to flourish, we were never afraid of hard work. You combine those two and great things happen,” said Partner Slobodan Kremenjak.
Živković Samardžić team, securing the victory for a client in this particular case, was led by Miloš Stojković, Technology, Media and Telecommunications Associate.