EU Commission targets 17 states over Marrakesh Treaty non-compliance

This article was first published in the World Intellectual Property Review on 30 November.

The European Commission has instigated non-compliance proceedings against 17 member states, including the UK, for failing to tell it that they have transposed copyright provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty into national law. Partner Chris Williams comments in the WIPR.

Chris said that the Marrakesh Treaty is “broadly very popular and the UK appears to have gone above and beyond what was strictly required of it by the directive.”

As the IPO had said, Williams explained that the trigger for the action against the UK may be “little more than a failure in housekeeping” in the form of the UK not providing the Commission with notice of its compliance.

“It is on balance unlikely that the infringement action concerns a substantive failure of the UK that cannot be promptly remedied.”

A recent UK government publication, dated October 26, confirmed that the UK had implemented the directive covering the Marrakesh Treaty.

Read the full article here.