Court of Appeal ruling releases Bauer from having to pay royalties

When representing Bauer in the Court of Appeal, on 24 April 2012 we obtained a final judgment which dismissed ZAiKS’ claim for royalties to be paid to co-creators of audio-visual works. The dispute covered works on CDs that were magazine inserts.

This is a landmark judgment as it states that a collective management organisation must   show in respect of foreign films that it has concluded an agreement with a foreign organisation and that the foreign creators have granted this organisation the right to collect royalties. In other words, a collective management organisation cannot rely on the presumption in article 105 of the Copyright Law.

The project was carried out by experts in our Dispute Resolution Practice and our IP&TMT Practice – Paweł Lewandowski and  Aleksandra Auleytner.