EU

It was settled law, first, that the proprietor of a trade mark was entitled to prohibit a third party from using, without the proprietor’s consent, a sign identical with that trade mark when that use was in the course of trade, was in relation to goods or services which were identical with, or similar to, those for which that trade mark was registered, and affected, or was liable to affect, the functions of the trade mark. Second, under the copyright directive, an exclusive right was conferred on authors to authorise or prohibit any form of distribution to the public by sale or otherwise of the original of their works or copies thereof. Distribution to the public was characterised by a series of acts going, at the very least, from the conclusion of a contract of sale to the performance thereof by delivery to a member of the public. A trader in such circumstances bore responsibility for any act carried out by him or on his behalf giving rise to a “distribution to the public”