Harcus Parker received an award for Impact Case of the Year at the Managing IP EMEA Awards 2024 in London.
The firm was recognised for its work on Wight & others v BTC Core and others. This included an important judgment in the Court of Appeal in July last year which addressed the requirement of fixation under international copyright law and its application to digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.
The Court of Appeal considered article 2(2) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which provides that works or categories of works shall not be protected unless they have been fixed in some material form. It found that there was a real prospect of success in establishing that the requirement of fixation is satisfied in relation to the ‘Bitcoin File Format’, which is the format each new block of Bitcoin must take before it can be verified.
A copy of the Court of Appeal judgment is available here: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2023/868.html.
Harcus Parker, instructing Michael Hicks of Hogarth Chambers, acted for the successful Appellants.
The full list of winners at the Managing IP EMEA Awards 2024 can be found on the Managing IP website here: https://www.managingip.com/managing-ip-awards-emea-2024-winners-hub.
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