Ownership of commissioned Community designs - ECJ hands down judgment in FEIA v Cul de Sac

In C-32/08 FEIA v Cul de Sac, the ECJ, following the advice of the Advocate-General, has held that where a design was commissioned for money, Art.14(3) which refers to designs being developed by an employee in the execution of his duties belonging to the employer was not relevant to the ownership of commissioned works. The ECj also held that there was no room for national law to determine the issue of ownership of an unregistered Community design and that thus the issue of ownership had to be determined by reference to Art.14(1). Art.14(1) states that the right to register the design shall vest in the designer or his successor in title. The ECJ considered the phrase "successor in title" and its translation in the various languages of the Member States and concluded that such a phrase also included a contractual assignment. In particular, they considered the drafting history of the regulation. The ECJ thus said that it is for national courts to ascertain whether there has been an assignment by way of contract of the right to a Community design from the designer to his successor in title (within the meaning of Art.14(1)) so as to determine who owns the right to the unregistered Community design.