LOCALS AND ESTATE AGENTS

Japanese trade marks

The Daily Yomiuri Online reports that Japan is revising its trade mark law next month. From what the IPKat can make out, it will now be easier to register trade marks for local products which, confusingly, seem to be known as ‘Community trade marks’. Any further information would be welcomed.

Dutch databases

The IPKat is grateful to Dirk Visser for tipping him off about the following Dutch case:

Zoekallehuizen.nl (”Searchforallhouses.nl”; ZAH) is a search engine, which searches virtually all websites of estate agents in The Netherlands for houses that are for sale on a daily basis and places the results of its search actions on its websites in the form of deeplinks (www.zoekallehuizen.nl and www.zah.nl).

Two estate agents and the Dutch Association of Estate Agents (NVM) tried to get an injunction against ZAH on the basis of database right, copyright and unlawful competition.

The president of the district court of Arnhem denied the injunction in his judgement of 16 March 2006. He ruled that the websites of the individual estate agents did not show substantial investment and therefore were not protected by the database right, he also ruled that deep linking is allowed and that the texts accompanying the deep links were allowed under the quotation right.

This is the first decision in The Netherlands where the British Horse Racing Board decision of the ECJ is applied. Reference is also made to the German Paperboy-decision of the Bundesgerichtshof.

The IPKat wonders if there've been many cases in which a database right has been recognised following the ECJ's British Horseracing ruling.