Professor Estelle Derclaye work quoted in AG opinion in landmark case on works of applied art

On 8 May 2025, M. Szpunar, Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered his long-waited opinion in joined cases Mio/konektra (C-580/23 and C-795/23) which deal with the protection by copyright of two items furniture (a table and a shelving system). AG Szpunar cited Professor Derclaye’s book on the copyright/design interface and also followed almost all arguments of the European Copyright Society’s opinion on the topic for which she was one of the lead authors.

It is hoped that the Court will follow the AG and in addition, reject his point regarding infringement namely that low originality works should have the same level of protection as high originality works. The European Copyright Society had argued that - in a very summarised way for the purpose of this short item here - less original works should deserve less protection and that this is in line with the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, namely its Infopaq decision and also other areas of intellectual property law such as trademark law.