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Entry into force of the CMO Act on 1 June 2016 - new legal basis for the supervision of collective management organisations by the DPMA

Press release of 31 May 2016

Munich. For more than 50 years the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) has been the supervisory authority for collecting societies (now referred to as "collective management organisations"/"CMOs") in Germany. Starting tomorrow, the DPMA will base this activity on the new Act on the Management of Copyright and Related Rights by Collective Management Organisations (Gesetz über die Wahrnehmung von Urheberrechten und verwandten Schutzrechten durch Verwertungsgesellschaften). The act has been promulgated on 31 May 2016 in the Federal Law Gazette I (p. 1190). When the CMO Act (Verwertungsgesellschaftengesetz) enters into force, the Copyright Management Act (Urheberrechtswahrnehmungsgesetz) of 1965 will be repealed simultaneously.

"The CMO Act, promulgated today, will extend our duties and powers and the CMOs must meet more comprehensive obligations of information and transparency," says Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, President of the DPMA. "We look forward to the future exchange with other national supervisory authorities, which will be an essential element of the enhanced cooperation in Europe."

The Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market was transposed into national German law through the adoption of the CMO Act by the German Bundestag. The CMO Act regulates in detail the rights and obligations of CMOs, right holders (e.g. authors and performers) and users (e.g. broadcasters), for example, with regard to the participation of right holders in the CMO. It contains new provisions dealing with multi-territorial licensing of online rights in musical works by collective management organisations.

The DPMA as federal supervisory authority has to make sure that the CMOs duly fulfil their statutory duties. Supervision now also covers other organisations - which are referred to as dependent and independent management entities. The DPMA will work together and exchange information with supervisory authorities of other member states of the European Union in the future.

The German Patent and Trade Mark Office

The DPMA is the federal centre of expertise in the field of IP protection in Germany. With a staff of over 2,500, it is the largest national IP office in Europe and the fifth largest national patent office in the world. The staff based at locations in Munich, Jena and Berlin grant patents, register trade marks, utility models and designs, and manage these IP rights. In addition, they provide information on IP rights to the public. For more information on the DPMA, please go to https://www.dpma.de.

Last updated: 19 December 2024