Belgium: Copyright

Copyright Comparative Guide for the jurisdiction of Belgium, check out our comparative guides section to compare across multiple countries

Belgium has long recognised the role of research and development (R&D) and innovation in its economic development and competitiveness – and the need to remain an attractive destination for companies looking to invest in cutting-edge technologies.

It is now clear that EU Member States must afford copyright protection to designs or "works of applied art" if the harmonized conditions are met, regardless of the country of origin of these works or the nationality of the author.

In a previous article ("NFT, THE NEW HYPE. WHAT ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS?") we took a closer look at Non Fungible Tokens or NFTs and explained what exactly these NFTs are.

Chances are you have already interacted with generative AI – whether by prompting ChatGPT to write a poem about the unbearable lightness of being on a Thursday night, or by generating images of "Pikachu riding a horse in Tuscany, ukiyo-e style" with Dall-E.

Since 1 August 2022, Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (‘DSMD') has been transposed into book XI of the Belgian Economic Law Code.

The Opinion finds that a media player integrating illegal hyperlinks to copyright protected works infringes the rights of the right holders of these works.

The case will now go back to the national court, which must deliver a decision in line with the ECJ's interpretation of the Directive.

On 3 June 2016, the Court of Appeal of Brussels denied the Belgian Association for Authors, Composers and Publishers the right to collect remuneration for communication to the public from internet service providers.