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Cheese doesn’t make the cut in UK copyright law on arts

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Cheese doesn’t make the cut in UK copyright law on arts

No matter what your palate tells you, fragrant, gooey, euphoric cheese is not a work of art.

A recent case set before the Court of Justice of the European Union settled the fact that cheese cannot be copyrighted under the EU’s laws pertaining to “artistic works,” the news site theconversation.com reported this month following the November ruling.

The ruling stems from a suit in which one cheesemaker sued another claiming their rival’s product tasted the same as theirs. The ruling, that copyright law does not protect the taste of cheese, is important because it affects more than cheese, according to the author, a professor of intellectual property law at the University of Nottingham.

Similar sensory products will follow suit — perfumes, for example, according to the article.

While it’s bad news for the makers of cheese or scents, “it’s an important judgment for British and Irish artists as the court’s argument implies that their creations do not have to fall into one of the eight rigid categories of the UK Copyright Act, which included protections for ‘literary, dramatic and musical works’ or ‘artistic works,’” the professor wrote.

 

 

 

 

 

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