On 24 October 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on the copyright protection of design from the United States, particularly in the context of the Dutch court case surrounding the Vitra dining chair designed by Charles and Ray Eames. The case arose when Vitra, which claims copyright for the chair, took legal action against Kwantum, which marketed a similar chair. Kwantum challenged the protection, pointing out that US copyright law does not protect design.
The Supreme Court asked the CJEU to clarify the relationship between European copyright harmonisation and the Berne Convention. The latter states that countries covered by the convention must give copyright holders from other countries the same protection as their own nationals, but leaves room for national exceptions if the country of origin does not offer protection.
However, the CJEU ruled that European Directive 2001/29 (Infosoc) does not allow member states to apply the substantive-reciprocity test. This means that the Netherlands may not exclude US design works from protection based on the lack of protection in the US, as long as those designs meet the requirements of European copyright directives.
The court emphasised that the Union legislature has exclusive power to create exceptions to copyright protection, and such exceptions cannot be created by national legislatures. As a result, member states must abide by the protection provided by the EU, regardless of the origin of the work or the nationality of the author.
Source: Book9