Originality in software law: Belgian doctrine and jurisprudence remain divided

Legal context Article 1.3 of the Software Directive stipulates that ‘a computer program shall be protected if it is original in the sense that it is the author's own intellectual creation’. The same condition is formulated in Article 2, part 1 of the Belgian Software Act. Key points Belgian doctrine and jurisprudence remain divided regarding the question whether the romantic (continental European) originality criterion applies so that a computer program should bear the personal mark of the author, or whether a lower (Anglo-Saxon) threshold level is applicable. This threshold means that a compu... Mehr ...