Back to work Newsletter 2024
✨ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE✨
➡️ Fun game on the European IA Act
The AI Act Game is an educational tool designed by Thomas Le Goff, PhD, lecturer in digital law and regulation at Télécom Paris.
The game provides a fun way of understanding the obligations of the European regulation on artificial intelligence (AI Act).
🧩 The AI Act came into force on 1 August 2024.
After that, a whole timetable for the application of the provisions was set:
• the category of AI systems banned will be banned after 6 months,
• A second deadline of 1 year will see the regulation of AI systems for general use,
• High-risk AI systems and transparency obligations will follow after 2 years….
All these categories, and the obligations arising from them, are addressed in the game.
The game is aimed at companies that want to familiarise themselves with the new regulations and put in place the appropriate measures.
In just 30 minutes.
FIRSH expert word: It’s your turn to play (but really this time) to understand what’s at stake, and before you put the measures in place within your company!
Find out more and discover the AI Act Game 👉 https://lnkd.in/eAFzMhmd
✨INFLUENCER LAW✨
On 3 July 2024, the French government notified the European Commission of the new draft regulation amending the Influencers Act to ensure compliance with EU law. 🚨 Stakeholders are invited to comment on the draft regulation over the next three months.
• August 2023: European Commissioner Thierry Breton criticised France for its influencer law, for contradicting the Digital Service Act and for failing to comply with the TRIS procedure – a procedure for notifying the European Commission when a draft national law is likely to conflict with EU law on information society services.
• 23 April 2024: The French Parliament passed a new law to bring the law on influencers into line with EU law. As a result, the French government must draw up new rules on influencers within 9 months.
• On 4 July 2024, the European Commission was notified of the new draft order amending the law on influencers.
✨INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY✨
➡️ « Nouveau Front Populaire » brand?
After the alliance between LFI, the PS, Les Écologistes, the French Communist Party, and others to form the NFP on 10 June 2024, trademark law has been put to the test!
And for good reason, on 11 and 12 June 2024, LFI and the PS each individually filed 2 applications respectively for registration of the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) word and figurative trademarks with the INPI, making 4 trademarks in total.
🔍 What is to be learned from this identical double filing of trademarks?
Simultaneous filing without consultation between the coalition parties: the two parties filed the trademark almost simultaneously, creating confusion over the ownership of the trademark, which was supposed to represent the sign of the ‘Nouveau Front Populaire’ coalition and not the sign of the PS or the LFI.
Strong similarity of goods and services: although the filings include different goods and services, many goods and services are common to all 4 filings.
💼 Legal issues:
✅ Coexistence of trademarks: the coexistence of these 4 trademarks constitutes a major issue and requires the drafting of a trademark coexistence protocol between each of the parties, allowing the latter to exploit them, provided they obtain the agreement of the New Popular Front and all the parties forming the said coalition.
✅ Registration rights: were LFI and PS legally entitled to register the NFP trademark in their own names? In order to clarify the ownership of trademarks registered in the name of the Nouveau Front Populaire, it is essential that the parties draw up a licensing or co-ownership agreement, clearly defining the rights and obligations of each political party within the coalition.
✅ Cession of rights: An assignment of the rights to trademark applications could also be considered for the benefit of one of the parties.
⚖️ Legal implications:
Conflict management: Rigorous management of trademark rights is essential to avoid future internal disputes.
Coordination of IP strategies within political alliances is crucial to ensure effective legal protection.
➡️ Copyright, parody and freedom of artistic expression
Hergé’s Tintin character and parodies have a long history! The most recent decision was handed down by the Rennes Court of Appeal, overturning a lower court ruling in favour of Xavier Marabout, a painter who has produced a large series of works combining the character of Tintin with the world of Hopper.
The Court rejected the parody exception after pointing out that exceptions to copyright must be interpreted strictly. Indeed, the Court considered that the introduction of elements of sensuality into the paintings was not the result of Xavier Marabout’s spirit of mockery.
Secondly, the Court weighed up the interests between copyright and freedom of expression (often claimed in defence by appropriationist artists): the judges decided that in this case the painter had not addressed a subject of general interest that would have obliged him to use the character of Tintin.
Xavier Marabout is liable for copyright infringement and parasitism, but the author’s moral rights are not considered to have been infringed, in the absence of distortion.
Rennes Court of Appeal 4 June 2024 No. 21/04257
✨NEW TECHNOLOGIES✨
➡️ Platform and consumer law
A boat hire platform ordered to compensate the loss suffered by the victim of an accident due to inaccurate and misleading information on its site.
⚖ In a judgment dated 20 June 2024, the Draguignan Magistrates’ Court ordered, in solidum, a boat hire platform to compensate the loss suffered by the passenger of an uninsured jet ski hired on the platform, who was the victim of an accident. In particular, the judges considered that
• The platform published advertising likely to mislead consumers by indicating on its site that the boats offered for hire were insured by the owners, without carrying out the necessary checks;
• The uninsured driver who had hired the jet ski therefore lost a chance of compensation for a risk that ultimately materialised.
Read the judgement of the Draguignan Judicial Court of 20 June 2024, RG n° 21/05567
✨PERSONAL DATA ✨
➡️ UBER fined €290 million
On 22 July 2024, the Dutch Data Protection Authority, in cooperation with the CNIL, fined UBER B.V. and UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. €290 million for transferring personal data outside the EU without sufficient guarantees.
The CNIL had received a collective complaint from the association La Ligue des droits de l’Homme, representing more than 170 UBER drivers, concerning the transfer of personal data outside the European Union.
In application of the cooperation procedures between the national authorities responsible for personal data and UBER, which has its principal place of business in the Netherlands, the Dutch data protection authority was competent to carry out the investigations in this case.
The authorities noted the transfer of a large amount of personal data belonging to its drivers outside the European Union, without any guarantee of appropriate protection and confidentiality.
For more than two years between 2021 and 2023, the company sent information relating to taxi accounts and licences, location data, photos, payment information, identity documents and, in some cases, the drivers’ criminal and medical data to its US headquarters.
While in Europe the RGPD protects the personal data – and therefore the fundamental rights – of citizens, the situation is different outside the European Union, particularly in the United States.
The Dutch data protection authority, which is responsible for imposing penalties, has fined the company 290 million euros.
✨ « FIRSH » NEWS ✨
Find out more about Firsh’s contributions to the advancement of law and innovation:
FIRSH joins Mouvement Impact France. FIRSH, a company with a mission, has been selected to join Mouvement Impact France, a network driven by and for entrepreneurs with #social and #ecological impact🌱
💡The Mouvement Impact France is an employers’ organisation dedicated to realigning the economic interests of businesses with the common good to build a robust, fair economy that respects planetary limits in France.
➡️ As part of its innovation laboratory, FIRSH will be participating in advocacy activities and the ‘Tech for Good’ task force.
Claire Poirson, our founding partner, emphasises that ‘reconciling the business world and financial profitability with a more sustainable environment focused on people has become a necessity, and this is in the DNA of FIRS. Putting the law at the service of responsible innovation and creation is part of FIRSH’s raison d’être.
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