For a long time, it was unclear whether technical standards, such as DIN standards, were protected by copyright. The General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg (EuG) has now ruled in a judgment dated July 14, 2021, Ref. T-185/19, concerning collections of documents, that these are protected by copyright.
Are DIN standards comparable to laws?
It is clear that laws, ordinances, and statutes cannot enjoy copyright protection. For a long time, it was therefore questionable whether technical protection standards should be classified as laws. Up to now, it was widely believed that DIN standards (standards of the German Institute for Standardization), for example, should not be protected by copyright. This was because the regulations supposedly had an official character, were also financed by taxpayers' money, and should therefore also be freely accessible and not subject to copyright protection. Among others, the organization Right To Know, based in Dublin, Ireland, challenged this fee requirement. It invoked the European Union's Regulation on Access to Documents, according to Article 2 of which there is a right to free access to documents of the institutions of the European Union, and thus brought the case before the General Court of the European Union (EuG).
Copyright protection for technical standards?
The General Court of the European Union (EuG) has now affirmed copyright protection for technical standards. Unlike laws, technical standards are not freely accessible; instead, they are published by standardization bodies or organizations and are therefore subject to a fee. Technical standards are therefore not laws. Furthermore, there is no public and legitimate interest in making the fee-based standard sheets available to everyone free of charge.
The judgment is not yet legally binding.
Source: General Court, Judgment of July 14, 2021 – Ref.: T-185/19
GoldbergUllrich Attorneys at Law 2021
Attorney at Law Christopher Pillat, LL.M. (Intellectual Property Law)
