Copyright Tribunal Practice Direction

References to the Copyright Tribunal ("the Tribunal") under s. 128(A) and (B) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("the Act").

This Practice Direction sets out the procedure that the Tribunal intends to adopt in considering references that are made to it by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under s. 128(A) of the Act and in the exercise of the powers conferred on the Tribunal pursuant to s.128(B) of the Act.

  1. The licensing body shall within 21 days of receipt of notice that the Secretary of State has referred a proposed licence or licensing scheme to the Tribunal :-

    a) serve on all other parties which to its knowledge have made representations to it or to the Secretary of State copies of all documents it has put before the Secretary of State; and

    b) serve on the Secretary to the Tribunal (with copies to all such other parties) such other representations as it may wish to make to the Tribunal, together with a list of the names and addresses of the other parties.
  2. Within 21 days of service of the documents specified in paragraph 1 above the other parties shall serve on the Secretary to the Tribunal (with copies to the licensing body) any further representations that they may wish to make to the Tribunal.
  3. Within 14 days of service on it of any further representations pursuant to paragraph 2 above, the licensing body may make representations strictly in reply to any new matters raised in such further representations.
  4. The Tribunal will then address such questions (if any) as it considers appropriate to the licensing body and/or any of the other parties and will inform any third party that it considers should be notified of the existence of the reference and shall set such time limits for the answering of such questions or for the making of representations by the third parties or further representations by the licensing body and/or the other parties as it sees fit.
  5. The Tribunal, after considering all relevant materials, will issue its formal decision.

It should be noted that:-

  • save in exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal will not hold any hearings; and
  • where the Tribunal has pursuant to s. 128B(3) confirmed or varied a licence or licensing scheme, it is open to any relevant person to:-

    (i) lodge an appeal to the High Court pursuant to s. 152 of the Act; and/or

    (ii) refer such licence or licensing scheme to the Tribunal pursuant to s.120 of the Act.

3 January 2006
Christopher Tootal
Christopher Floyd, QC
Simon Thorley, QC