You can SIAE that again!

Next week is quite a quiet week for new IP rulings from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and its sidekick, the Court of First Instance. But that's not to say that our Euro-judges are taking a cat-nap. Apart from having plenty of hearings and doing all their serious research and thinking, on Thursday 28 June they will be preparing themselves for the Advocate General's Opinion in Case C-20/05 Schwibbert. All the way from Italy, this case is on a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale Civile e Penale di Forlì in what are apparently criminal proceedings. The questions referred, as described on the Curia website, are as follows:

- whether the affixing of the distinctive sign SIAE [società italiana degli autori ed editori] is compatible with Council Directive 92/100/EEC on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property, and Articles 3 EC and 23 EC to 27 EC;

- whether it is further compatible with Council Directive 83/189/EEC and Council Directive 88/182/EEC.

The UK-IPO website is more expansive, though. With commendable clarity and attention to detail it expands the questions thus:

"- to formulate an order for reference to obtain an interpretation of Council Directive 92/100/EC of 19 November 1992 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property, of Article 3 of the EC Treaty with regard to the prohibition as between Member States 'of customs duties' and 'quantitative restrictions on the import and export of goods' and 'all other measures having equivalent effect', and of Articles 23 to 27 EC in order to determine whether affixing the sign of the Italian Society of Authors & Publishers (SIAE) must be regarded as a measure having equivalent effect within the meaning of the Treaty;

- to formulate the order for reference so that it also relates to the interpretation of Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, as amended by Council Directive 88/182/EEC of 22 March 1988, in order to determine whether affixing the SIAE mark falls within the scope of that directive".

Left: another SIAE, this time a painting by Paul Klee (1937)

At this point the IPKat doesn't know anything about the factual background to this dispute and wonders if any of his Italian readers can put him right? he had a quick look at Catch Us If You Can but found nothing there ...

More on SIAE and its official stamp
Other SIAEs here and here