Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Community law ° Principles ° Equal treatment ° Discrimination on grounds of nationality ° Prohibition ° Scope of application ° Copyright and related rights ° Inclusion

(EEC Treaty, Art. 7)

2. Community law ° Principles ° Equal treatment ° Discrimination on grounds of nationality ° Prohibition ° National legislation according to authors and performers the right to prohibit the marketing of phonograms produced from performances given outside the national territory and manufactured without their consent ° Right refused to nationals of other Member States ° Not permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 7)

3. Community law ° Principles ° Equal treatment ° Discrimination on grounds of nationality ° Prohibition ° Possibility for nationals of other Member States to avail themselves of that prohibition in order to benefit from the protection of literary and artistic property reserved to nationals

(EEC Treaty, Art. 7)

Summary

1. Copyright and related rights fall, by reason in particular of their effects on intra-Community trade in goods and services, within the scope of application of the Treaty, within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 7. The general principle of non-discrimination laid down by the first paragraph of Article 7 is applicable to those rights, without there even being any need to connect them with the specific provisions of Articles 30, 36, 59 and 66 of the Treaty.

2. The first paragraph of Article 7 of the Treaty must be interpreted as precluding the legislation of a Member State from denying to authors and performers from other Member States, and those claiming under them, the right, accorded by that legislation to the nationals of that State, to prohibit the marketing in its national territory of a phonogram manufactured without their consent, where the performance was given outside its national territory.

In prohibiting "any discrimination on the grounds of nationality" Article 7 requires each Member State to ensure that persons in a situation governed by Community law be placed on a completely equal footing with its own nationals and therefore precludes a Member State from making the grant of an exclusive right subject to the requirement that the person concerned be a national of that State.

3. The first paragraph of Article 7 of the Treaty must be interpreted as meaning that the principle of non-discrimination which it lays down may be directly relied upon before a national court by an author or performer from another Member State, or by those claiming under them, in order to claim the benefit of the protection reserved to national authors and performers.