Online Intermediary Liability in Serbian Law: Reconciling IP Protection and Freedom of Expression

Abstract

This paper focuses on intermediary liability for online infringements of intellectual property rights in Serbian law. Following the EU model, the Serbian legislator introduced a ‘safe harbor’ rule, securing an immunity regime for online intermediaries, under specific conditions. However, the recent reform of Serbian copyright and trademark law allowed for an injunctive relief against online intermediaries. The purpose for the injunction can be to obtain the information on the primary infringer, so that an action can be directed against it, and/or to remove the infringing content from the intermediary’s network. The injunction mechanism needs to be used prudently, so as to avoid any possible abuse for the purpose of restricting the freedom of expression. The freedom of expression and privacy concerns are particularly generated with respect to the right of information, i.e. the conditions under which a right owner can learn the identity of the infringer, and the scope of specific filtering measures which may be imposed to online intermediaries.