Broadcasting: Post-Murphy: the territorial TV sports licensing landscape

This article looks at the impact the European Commission inquiry into TV licensing arrangements with Hollywood film studios could have on sport’s TV licensing model. Craig Giles, an Associate with Bird & Bird, refreshes memories on the position regarding territorial licensing of sports content following the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) ruling in the Murphy case. He also examines the application of the CJEU ruling by the UK courts, the next wave of FAPL action in the wake of the ruling and issues around commercial subscriptions to overseas broadcasters and whether their sale is being restricted.

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Sponsorship - the golden goal of advertisement?

IP & IT analysis: How can sponsors protect their rights? Craig Giles, a senior associate in the sport and media groups of Bird & Bird LLP, advises on the practical issues concerning sponsorship of major international sporting events.

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Copyright levy: the new criteria of the Italian Ministry Decree of June 20, 2014

On 8 July this year, the Decree of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism – the Decree - (dated June 20, 2014) entered into force. The Decree updates for the next three years the copyright levy applicable to the records of phonograms and videos used by private subjects, as foreseen by the Italian Copyright Law,. Further to the Decree's introduction, SIAE, the Italian collecting society, has recently published the charts from which businesses subject to the levy obligations could calculate and pay the relevant amount to SIAE.

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Focus on R&D tax incentives

A significant number of countries now offer the critical operational pre-requisites for conducting research and development (R&D), i.e ., access to growing markets/customer base, access to talent, intellectual property protection, stable economy/government and IT infrastructure. This has led many countries to promote relocation of R&D operations to their country as part of their innovation-led economic development strategies. R&D tax incentives are an important component of these strategies and thus tax competition amongst European countries in respect of IP and related activities has become increasingly the norm.

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