EuGH: Urheberrecht und Schutzfähigkeit
Gespeichert von Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren am
Auch wenns kompliziert klingt - das Thema ist "hot". Der Europäische Gerichtshof (EuGH) hat in seinem Urteil vom 16. Juli 2009 (C-5/08 - Infopaq) für Furore gesorgt. Das Gericht entwickelt nunmehr einen einheitlichen Schutzstandard für alle urheberrechtlichen Werke . Damit könnte die deutsche Tradition der hohen Originalitätskriterien für Gebrauchswerke eventuell ein Ende haben. Gleichzeitig entwickelt der EuGH erstmals Grundsätze eines "acquis communitaire" im Urheberrecht. Hier geht es um die Schutzfähigkeit von Passagen aus einem Zeitungsartikel. Dazu hier die Passage im Original:
"37 In those circumstances, copyright within the meaning of Article 2(a) of Directive 2001/29 is liable to apply only in relation to a subject-matter which is original in the sense that it is its author’s own intellectual creation.
(..) 40 With respect to the scope of such protection of a work, it follows from recitals 9 to 11 in the preamble to Directive 2001/29 that its main objective is to introduce a high level of protection, in particular for authors to enable them to receive an appropriate reward for the use of their works, including at the time of reproduction of those works, in order to be able to pursue their creative and artistic work.
41 Similarly, recital 21 in the preamble to Directive 2001/29 requires that the acts covered by the right of reproduction be construed broadly.
42 That requirement of a broad definition of those acts is, moreover, also to be found in the wording of Article 2 of that directive, which uses expressions such as ‘direct or indirect’, ‘temporary or permanent’, ‘by any means’ and ‘in any form’.
43 Consequently, the protection conferred by Article 2 of Directive 2001/29 must be given a broad interpretation.
44 As regards newspaper articles, their author’s own intellectual creation, referred to in paragraph 37 of this judgment, is evidenced clearly from the form, the manner in which the subject is presented and the linguistic expression. In the main proceedings, moreover, it is common ground that newspaper articles, as such, are literary works covered by Directive 2001/29.
45 Regarding the elements of such works covered by the protection, it should be observed that they consist of words which, considered in isolation, are not as such an intellectual creation of the author who employs them. It is only through the choice, sequence and combination of those words that the author may express his creativity in an original manner and achieve a result which is an intellectual creation.
46 Words as such do not, therefore, constitute elements covered by the protection.
47 That being so, given the requirement of a broad interpretation of the scope of the protection conferred by Article 2 of Directive 2001/29, the possibility may not be ruled out that certain isolated sentences, or even certain parts of sentences in the text in question, may be suitable for conveying to the reader the originality of a publication such as a newspaper article, by communicating to that reader an element which is, in itself, the expression of the intellectual creation of the author of that article. Such sentences or parts of sentences are, therefore, liable to come within the scope of the protection provided for in Article 2(a) of that directive. Zu lesen:
curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/gettext.pl