Editorial

• Author: Thomas Dreier
• Pages: 209-210

Thomas Dreier

2018

209

3

Editorial

by Thomas Dreier

© 2018 Thomas Dreier

Everybody may disseminate this ar ticle by electronic m eans and make it available for downloa d under the terms and

conditions of the Digital P eer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license text may be obtain ed at http://nbn-resolving.

de/urn:nbn:de:0009-dppl-v3-en8.

Recommended citation: Th omas Dreier, Editorial, 9 (2018) JIPITEC 209 pa ra 1.

1

In view of the ever-faster advancement of digital

technologies, the law of intellectual property (IP)

and of information technology (IT) is increasingly

expanding. As a result, a journal such as JIPITEC,

the Journal of Intellectual Property, Information

Technology and E-Commerce Law, has to deal

with an increasingly diverse range of topics. This

is particularly reected in the present issue, which

rather than focusing on a particular area of law

covers a wide range of legal regulations, from

traditional IP law and the law of international

treaties via traditional liability, and insurance law

to data protection laws and the regulation providing

for IT-security. This plethora of different issues is

triggered, amongst others, by the paradigm shift

from trading in physical objects to immaterial

services, and the shift from industrial manufacturing

to home production of physical objects with the

help of 3D-printing, as well as by the propagation of

autonomously driving vehicles.

2

This variety of topics creates a dilemma for the editor

who – besides guaranteeing that the Journal’s high

quality standard is met – has to pick and choose which

of the manuscripts submitted he or she considers

worthy of publication. Some of the journal’s readers

might wish to see the focus of the article in one

particular area, whereas some readers might wish

to see another area highlighted. Moreover, readers

who are already familiar with a particular topic

or are even experts in their particular eld might

be looking for additional in-depth information,

while those less specialized might rather wish to

be confronted with an overview which just outlines

the main issues of a particular area. In this respect,

the present issue attempts a balancing act between

a variety of topics of different legal elds, while at

the same time integrating in-depth analyses with

other articles that just provide a quick overview, or

which only concentrate on a particular issue within

a wider area.

3 Hence, the lead article by Caterina Sganga, Associate

Professor of Comparative Private Law, DIRPOLIS

Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies

in Pisa (Italy), provides a very thorough in-depth

analysis of the case law handed by the CJEU on the

issue of digital exhaustion. In view of the CJEU’s

argumentation in the famous UsedSoft-case and

following the Ranks-case it is still unclear to what

extent the CJEU considers UsedSoft is limited to

the Computer Program Directive, or whether the

CJEU will also arrive at the same result with regard

to works protected under the InfoSoc-Directive.

Sganga develops several arguments which might

serve as a basis for the CJEU’s decision in the pending

Tom Kabinet-case, and she makes a convincing

argument in favor of “tertium genus” in between

the distribution of physical copies on the one hand,

and the provision of immaterial services on the

other. This model would allow the application of

the doctrine of exhaustion also to the distribution/

communication of some content, which is protected

by the InfoSoc-Directive and which is communicated

online.

4 In a similar way, the following article by Christophe

Geiger, Giancarlo Frosio and Oleksandr Bulayenko –

respectively, Director General and Director of

the Research Department, Senior Researcher and

Lecturer as well as Researcher and PhD Candidate

of the Centre for International Intellectual Property

Studies (CEIPI) in Strasbourg, France – seek to give

advice to the European legislature as regards the