Account

Sign in to access your account and subscription

Are Anti-Trust Laws About to Bite Europe on Its IP Assets?

In the Nov. 11 edition of <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>, Ian Harvey, chief executive of tech firm BTG plc, said "if the European Commission were looking for a way to cripple technological innovation in Europe, it could hardly have come up with a better proposal than its proposed rules on technology transfer." Indeed, that proposal will no longer govern merely patents and know-how, but also software-copyright licenses - a move that might very well have a big impact on a variety of e-commerce business models.

24 minute readDecember 01, 2003 at 01:22 PM
By
Simon Smith
Are Anti-Trust Laws About to Bite Europe on Its IP Assets?

In the Nov. 11 edition of The Wall Street Journal, Ian Harvey, chief executive of tech firm BTG plc, said “if the European Commission were looking for a way to cripple technological innovation in Europe, it could hardly have come up with a better proposal than its proposed rules on technology transfer.”

This premium content is locked for LawJournalNewsletters subscribers only

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE SINGLE SOURCE OF OBJECTIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS, PRACTICAL INSIGHTS, AND NEWS IN LawJournalNewsletters

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

Already have an account? Sign In Now

For enterprise-wide or corporate access, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or call 1-877-256-2473.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2026 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Continue Reading

The volume and sophistication of work hitting law firm marketing departments is accelerating. That moves the burden from responding to being ready: ready with differentiated positioning, ready with competitive intelligence, ready to get a compelling pitch to the right client before a formal process even begins. That requires more sophisticated output, produced faster, by teams that are already stretched past capacity.

April 01, 2026

The annals of copyright decisions could provide a reasonably representative catalog of what our culture has been up to over the past 200 years. A Feb. 3 decision from the Southern District of New York is a case in point. It involves a sex-trafficking conspiracy, Tweets attacking a troubled crypto firm, and a claimed transfer of copyright ownership through a restitution order in a criminal case, all over an undercurrent of competing First Amendment and victim-privacy concerns.

April 01, 2026

Matthew McConaughey secured eight federal trademark registrations covering his voice and iconic catchphrases in a novel legal strategy aimed at combating AI’s unauthorized use of his voice and likeness. The move signals an important evolution in the power dynamics between talent/brands and the companies providing generative AI tools.

April 01, 2026