Limitations of the Freedom of Hyperlinking in the Fields of Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Unfair Competition Law: Is Case-by-case Approach Sufficient?

Abstract

Although there are no legal regulations in the area of hyperlinking, the issue of the freedom of hyperlinking affect jurisprudence among others in the fields of unfair competition law and intellectual property law. Therefore, there is a need to consider if case-by-case approach is sufficient or special legal regulations in the field of hyperlinking should be created. This work concerns taxonomy of hyperlinks, jurisdictional issues, notion of "making available to new public”, circumvention of access restrictions, issue of advertisement of counterfeit goods, copyright and trademark infringements. Matter of defamation of competitors through hyperlinking is also elaborated in this work. Issues of copyright law, trademark law and unfair competition law are discussed independently in this paper. Therefore, wide range of hyperlinking matters is elaborated in this article. Hence, this is significant source of information and considerations on legal problems in the field of hyperlinking.