Labianca v Knoll International SpA, Court of Justice of the European Union
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that a business which advertised copyright works without permission of the copyright owner could be sued for infringement of the owner’s distribution rights even if there is no link between the advert and any actual sales of works that infringe that copyright. The ruling came in a case where a furniture company sued a distributor over its marketing of products that were allegedly counterfeits of the owner’s products. The furniture company alleged that the distributor had infringed copyright by having marketed imitations of its designs, given that the furniture company had exclusive rights to sell those products in the particular market. All that was necessary was for the holder of an exclusive right to distribute the work to show that an advert featuring a copy of that work invited consumers in the EU member state where that work had copyright protection to buy it. No actual sales needed to be shown.