MARCH 2009
Ruling boosts IP owners in internet cases
Managing Intellectual Property
An Israeli court has ordered Google Israel and a local ISP to disclose information relating to subscribers suspected of online piracy. Gadi Oron argues that the decision will be invaluable for IP owners
| One-minute read |
| On January 7 2009, the Tel Aviv District Court ordered Google and a local ISP to disclose the identity of, and other information relating to, the operators of a website allegedly infringing IP rights. This was the first time that an Israeli court had allowed rights owners to obtain disclosure orders against ISPs in IP litigation. The decision establishes the criteria against which pre-action disclosure applications will be judged. It also significantly lowers the threshold previously set by the courts in online defamation cases. In addition, the ruling expands the scope of third parties against which disclosure may be ordered. |
Online piracy can take different forms such as selling counterfeit goods through an illegal website operated by the infringer or through auction websites; offering unauthorised copies of software, music or films through websites and blogs; or making such files available to other internet users over file-sharing networks. In these and other cases, to take action to stop the infringement and recover losses, it is necessary for the injured rights owners to determine the identity of the suspected infringer. Identifying the direct infringer is, however, difficult. In a typical scenario, users that engage in online infringement do so anonymously or under a pseudonym and, as a result, rights owners are usually unable to determine their identity. The only information that is publicly available to injured rights owners is the internet protocol (IP) address assigned by the ISP to the computer used for the infringement.
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