Above and beyond potential protection by Copyrights, all graphics or designs can be protected by Design rights.
Any reproduction, without consent, of graphics or designs protected by design rights constitutes, as a matter of principle, an act of counterfeiting. Consequently, caution is required.
In two rulings on September 27, 2017 opposing the companies Nintendo and BigBen Interactive GmbH / BigBen Interactive SA, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) nevertheless laid down a strictly-regulated exception to the protection of designs.
The company Nintendo filed a counterfeit claim against the video game accessory manufacturer, BigBen Interactive, who was reproducing, for the purpose of selling its products, images of Nintendo console accessories protected by design rights.
The Court of Justice took a chunk out of rights holders’ monopoly by judging that a design could lawfully be reproduced without prior consent from the holder if that reproduction was an illustration.
The images were considered illustrative insofar as they allowed to demonstrate the joint use of the BigBen Interactive and Nintendo products to consumers.
Nonetheless, this lawful reproduction is subject to conditions.
The Court of Justice requires that the reproduction of the design be made within the framework of loyal competition and that it not threaten the economic balance of its holder. Moreover, it must be possible to identify the holder of the design reproduced.
Lastly, caution is required since, although the Court of Justice’s interpretation seems to reduce the scope of protection for Community Designs, the exception is nonetheless subject to conditions and may be limited by potential cumulative protection by Copyright.
European Court of Justice, September 27, 2017, C24/16 and C-25/16, EU:C:2017:724, Nintendo / BigBen Interactive GmbH and BigBen Interactive SA.
