UK Injunction over www Link

Further to Charles Oppenheim's post regarding the grant of a UK injunction to prevent linking, The legal reasoning behind this surely must be incorrect and may be an example of the failure of the court to appreciate the technical issues involved.

I would suggest that the only way for the issue to be argued from a copyright perspective is to argue that the URL of the web page being linked is protected by copyright, as effectively that is the only item reproduced by the defendants.

I can't think of any English authorities which support this proposition however. With short phrases or titles, (the nearest cases we have to URL's) the courts have been quite consistent In following the Maxim "De Minimis Non Curat Lex" and refusing to grant protection to such devices as literary works

• examples include

Exxon v Exxon insurance [1982] Ch 119
Francis Day v Twentieth Century Fox [1940] AC 112

The most appropriate method being trade marks or passing off.

I would also be inclined to treat the precedent value of this case with due caution due to the fact that under the House of Lords ruling in American Cyanamid v Ethicon [1975] AC 396 where the grant of an interlocutory injunction is concerned, the party seeking the injunction undertakes to provide compensation should that matter proceed to trial, bearing this in mind the court can be "generous" in its ability to grant interim injunctions, so all the court considers is whether the is a issue to be tried, and then considers the "balance of convenience" *NOT* matters of law (except where a mandatory injunction is sought).

I would concede however, that many injunction cases in IP matters are quoted as precedents, purely because the matter does not usually proceed to trial and they are the only authorities available.

| Mark Wing, Course Leader, LLM Intellectual Property Law |
|                     Law Faculty                         |
|                 Southampton Institute                   |
|              Email: wing_m[_at_]solent.ac.uk                 |
|                Tel: +44 (0)1703 319527                  |


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

|           Visit the Faculty of Law Homepage:            |
|         http://www.solent.ac.uk/law/index.html          |


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~