When the Infringer is a Contractual Licensee

When the Infringer is a Contractual Licensee

Journal article

12 pages

Copyright infringement in the UK is defined as the doing of a restricted act without the licence of the owner of the copyright. It is also an infringement of copyright if a person does have the licence of the copyright owner, but violates its terms. When a contractual licensee violates a term of the contractual licence, it does not automatically become a copyright infringement. While there are terms the violation of which results in an action for copyright infringement, there are also those that result only in an action for breach of contract – a classic example of the latter being the term stipulating the payment of a licence fee. However, this general distinction between these causes of action has an honourable exception. The violation of a term which may otherwise have resulted only in breach of contract results also in copyright infringement if there is a repudiatory breach. This article explores this relatively obscure area.

Published in : European Intellectual Property Review

[Toronto, Ontario] : Thomson Reuters, 2020.

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