The joke is on us
In all fairness, EUIPO is also falling victim to the circumstances: 28 systems and no better way to do this than push the questions down to external experts and member states, and then sideways to the stakeholders that actually care.
The real problem behind the FAQ process is that the EU is not motivated enough or not that courageous to finally put an end to the ridicule that is not funny anymore – the 28 separate copyright systems that make people wonder if they can use the logo of their favorite sports team for their social media self-expression or not.
Should that miracle of harmonisation happen, EUIPO could devise one set of Q&A instead of 28 that wouldn’t take a year to put together.
To take it even further, if the harmonised and unified copyright were also updated to the contemporary concerns and technologies, it would include a bold set of exceptions and limitations that would enable people to take advantage of flexibility and private sharing as an everyday no-brainer and not a modern version of a ‘crime and punishment’ dilemma. It would also make many of the questions in the set obsolete and irrelevant.
As far as this dream goes, we now should get back to mining the 28-headed system. Also the promise of the Digital Single Market seems to be more and more elusive with dangerous ideas such as additional publishers’ rights and limiting the freedom of panorama. Until Europe comes together on both national and EU levels, we can use laughter as the coping mechanism.
Anna Mazgal is the Managing Director of the Polish Centrum Cyfrowe, a think-and-do tank turning society digital. Anna is also the COMMUNIA representative at the Observatory of IP Infringements