21.3.2009

Official Journal of the European Union

C 69/6

(Case C-240/07) (<span class="super">1</span>)

(Rights related to copyright - Rights of phonogram producers - Reproduction right - Distribution right - Term of protection - Directive 2006/116/EC - Rights of nationals of non-Member States)

(2009/C 69/08)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Sony Music Entertainment (Germany) GmbH

Defendant: Falcon Neue Medien Vertrieb GmbH

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Bundesgerichtshof — Interpretation of Article 10(2) of Directive 2006/116/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights (OJ 2006 L 372, p. 12) — Application of the term of protection to subject-matter that has not at any time been protected in the Member State in which protection is sought and whose rightholder is not a Community national.

Operative part of the judgment

1.The term of protection laid down by Directive 2006/116/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights is also applicable, pursuant to Article 10(2) thereof, where the subject-matter at issue has at no time been protected in the Member State in which the protection is sought.

2.Article 10(2) of Directive 2006/116 is to be interpreted as meaning that the terms of protection provided for by that directive apply in a situation where the work or subject-matter at issue was, on 1 July 1995, protected as such in at least one Member State under that Member State's national legislation on copyright and related rights and where the holder of such rights in respect of that work or subject-matter, who is a national of a non-Member State, benefited, at that date, from the protection provided for by those national provisions.

(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ C 170, 21.7.2007.