Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on 20 March 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. The Convention is still in force as of 2014.

National treatment
According to Articles 2 and 3 of this treaty, juristic and natural persons who are either national of or domiciled in a state party to the Convention shall, as regards the protection of industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union, the advantages that their respective laws grant to nationals. In other words, when an applicant files an application for a patent or a trademark in a foreign country member of the Union, the application receives the same treatment as if it came from a national of this foreign country. Furthermore, if the intellectual property right is granted (e.g. if the applicant becomes owners of a patent or of a registered trademark), the owner benefits from the same protection and the same legal remedy against any infringement as if the owner was a national owner of this right.

Priority right
The "Convention priority right", also called "Paris Convention priority right" or "Union priority right", was also established by Article 4 of this treaty. It provides that an applicant from one contracting State shall be able to use its first filing date (in one of the contracting State) as the effective filing date in another contracting State, provided that the applicant files another application within 6 months (for industrial designs and trademarks) or 12 months (for patents and utility models) from the first filing.

Berne Convention
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works , usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886. The Berne Convention requires its signatories to recognize the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the Berne Union) in the same way as it recognizes the copyright of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, regardless of where it was originally created. In addition to establishing a system of equal treatment that internationalized copyright amongst signatories, the agreement also required member states to provide strong minimum standards for copyright law. Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration (note however that when the United States joined the Convention in 1988, it continued to make statutory damages and attorney's fees only available for registered works).

Applicability
Under Article 3, the protection of the Convention applies to nationals and residents of signatory countries, and to works first published or simultaneously published (under Article 3(4), "simultaneously" is defined as [1] [1] "within 30 days" ) in a signatory country. Under Article 4, it also applies to cinematic works by persons who have their headquarters or habitual residence in a signatory country, and to architectural works situated in a signatory country.

Country of origin
The Convention relies on the concept of "country of origin". Often determining the country of origin is straightforward: when a work is published in a signatory country and nowhere else, this is the country of origin. However, under Article 5(4), when a work is published simultaneously in several signatory [1] countries (under Article 3(4), "simultaneously" is defined as "within 30 days" ), the country with the [3] shortest term of protection is defined as the country of origin. For works simultaneously published in a signatory country and one or more non-signatory countries, the signatory country is the country of origin. For unpublished works or works first published in a nonsignatory country (without publication within 30 days in a signatory country), the author's nationality usually provides the country of origin, if a national of a signatory country. (There are exceptions for [3] cinematic and architectural works.) In the internet age, publication online may be considered publication in every sufficiently internetconnected jurisdiction in the world. It is not clear what this may mean for determining "country of origin". In Kernel v. Mosley, a U.S. court "concluded that a work created outside of the United States, uploaded in Australia and owned by a company registered in Finland was nonetheless a U.S. work by virtue of its being published online". However other U.S. courts in similar situations have reached different [4] conclusions, e.g. Hkan Moberg v. 33T LLC. The matter of determining the country of origin for digital [5] publication remains a topic of controversy among law academics as well.

Copyright term
The Berne Convention states that all works except photographic and cinematographic shall be [6] copyrighted for at least 50 years after the author's death, but parties are free to provide longer terms, as

the European Union did with the 1993 Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection. For photography, the Berne Convention sets a minimum term of 25 years from the year the photograph was created, and for cinematography the minimum is 50 years after first showing, or 50 years after creation if it hasn't been shown within 50 years after the creation. Countries under the older revisions of the treaty may choose to provide their own protection terms, and certain types of works (such as phonorecords and motion pictures) may be provided shorter terms. If the author is unknown, because for example the author was deliberately anonymous or worked under a pseudonym, the Convention provides for a term of 50 years after publication ("after the work has been lawfully made available to the public"). However if the identity of the author becomes known, the copyright [6] term for known authors (50 years after death) applies. Although the Berne Convention states that the copyright law of the country where copyright is claimed shall be applied, Article 7(8) states that "unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term [6] shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work", i.e., an author is normally not entitled a longer copyright abroad than at home, even if the laws abroad give a longer term. This is commonly known as "the rule of the shorter term". Not all countries have accepted this rule.

Fair use
The Berne Convention authorizes countries to allow "fair" uses of copyrighted works in other publications [7][8] or broadcasts. The Agreed Statement of the parties to the WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996 states that: "It is understood that the mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or making a communication does not in itself amount to communication within the meaning of this Treaty or the Berne [9] Convention." This language may mean that Internet service providers are not liable for the infringing [9] communications of their users. Critics claim that the convention does not mention any other rights of [10] consumers of works except for fair use.

Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome Convention)

The Convention establishes uniform rules concerning the law applicable to contractual obligations in the European Union (EU).
ACT Convention 80/934/ECC on the law applicable to contractual obligations opened for
signature in Rome on 19 June 1980.

SUMMARY
The Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations was opened for signature in Rome on 19 June 1980 for the then nine European Community (EC) Member States. It entered into force on 1 April 1991. In due course, all the new members of the EC signed the Convention. When the Convention was signed by Austria, Finland and Sweden, a consolidated version was drawn up and published in the Official Journal in 1998. A further consolidated version was published in the Official Journal in 2005, following the accession of 10 new Member States to the Convention. The Convention applies to contractual obligations in situations involving a choice of laws even where the law it designates is that of a non-contracting State - with the exception of: questions involving the status or legal capacity of natural persons; contractual obligations relating to wills, matrimonial property rights or other family relationships; obligations arising under negotiable instruments (bills of exchange, cheques, promissory notes, etc.); arbitration agreements and agreements on the choice of court; questions governed by the law of companies and other corporate and unincorporated bodies; the question of whether an agent is able to bind a principal to a third party (or an organ to bind a company, or a corporate or unincorporated body); the constitution of trusts and questions relating to their organisation; evidence and procedure; contracts of insurance that cover risks situated in the territories of the Member States (excluding reinsurance contracts). The signatories to a contract may choose the law applicable to the whole or a part of the contract, and select the court that will have jurisdiction over disputes. By mutual agreement they may change the law applicable to the contract at any time (principle of freedom of choice). If the parties have not made an explicit choice of applicable law, the contract is governed by the law of the country with which it is most closely connected, according to the principle of the proper law (place of habitual residence or place of central administration of the party

performing the contract, principal place of business or other place of business of the party responsible for performing the contract). However, specific rules apply in two cases: where the contract concerns immovable property, the law applicable by default is that of the country in which the property is situated; where the contract concerns the transport of goods, the applicable law is determined according to the place of loading or unloading, or the principal place of business of the consignor. To protect the rights of the consumer, the supply of goods or services to a person is covered by special provisions, according to the principle of the protection of the weaker party. Unless the parties decide otherwise, such contracts are governed by the law of the country in which the consumer has his habitual residence. In no circumstances may the choice of law work to the disadvantage of the consumer or deprive him of the protection afforded by the law of his country of residence where it is more favourable. These rules do not apply to contracts of carriage or contracts for the supply of services in a country other than that in which the consumer has his habitual residence. In the case of employment contracts, one of the following will apply: the law of the country in which the employee habitually carries out his work; the law of the country in which the company that employed the worker has its place of business; the law of the country with which the employment contract is most closely associated. If the parties decide to select another law to apply to the contract, this choice may not be at the expense of the protection of the worker. Present or future provisions of Community law will take precedence over the terms of the Convention, in particular as regards the choice of law relating to contractual obligations concerning particular matters. If, once the Convention has entered into force, any Member State wishes to adopt new rules on the choice of law for a particular category of contracts within the scope of the Convention, or become a party to an international convention in this field, it must inform the other signatories. Each of these States has six months to respond and, if it so wishes, ask for consultations. If no reply has been received within six months or if no agreement has been reached in consultations within two years (one year in the case of a multilateral convention), the requesting State may amend its law or accede to the Convention. The Convention will remain in force for 10 years. It will then be tacitly renewed every five years, and may be denounced by one of the signatory States. Two Protocols on the interpretation of the Convention by the Court of Justice of the European Communities were signed in 1988. A third Protocol, signed in 1980 and

supplemented in 1996, authorises Denmark, Sweden and Finland to retain their national provisions concerning the law applicable to the carriage of goods by sea. Four joint declarations were appended to the Convention: in 1980, a number of Member States stressed the importance of measures adopted by the Community on choice-of-law rules being consistent with the terms of the Convention; they also raised the possibility of conferring jurisdiction for interpreting the Convention on the Court of Justice; in 1988, after the two Protocols had been signed, an exchange of information between the Member States and the Court of Justice on judgments relating to contractual obligations was proposed. A call was also made for all new Member States of the Community when signing the Rome Convention, to accede to the Protocol on the interpretation of the Convention by the Court of Justice.