Chapter I: General provisions

Civil actions and claims relating to literary and artistic property, including when they also relate to a related issue of unfair competition, shall be brought exclusively before judicial courts, determined by regulation. Regularly constituted professional defence bodies shall be entitled to institute legal proceedings to defend the interests for which they are statutorily responsible. A beneficiary validly invested on an exclusive basis, in accordance with the provisions of Book II,…

If the claimant proves circumstances likely to jeopardise the recovery of damages, the court may order the precautionary seizure of the movable and immovable property of the alleged infringer, including the freezing of his bank accounts and other assets, in accordance with ordinary law. In order to determine the assets that may be subject to seizure, it may order the disclosure of banking, financial, accounting or commercial documents or access…

If so requested, the court hearing the case on the merits or in summary proceedings in civil proceedings provided for in Books I, II and III of Part One may order, if necessary under a penalty payment, in order to determine the origin and distribution networks of the goods and services allegedly infringing the plaintiff’s rights, the production of any documents or information held by the defendant or by any…

In fixing the damages, the court shall take into account separately: 1° The negative economic consequences of the infringement of rights, including the loss of profit and loss suffered by the injured party; 2° The non-material damage caused to the injured party; 3° And the profits made by the infringer, including the savings in intellectual, material and promotional investment that the infringer has derived from the infringement of rights. However,…

In the event of a civil conviction for infringement, infringement of a right related to copyright or the rights of the producer of databases, the court may order, at the request of the injured party, that the objects made or manufactured infringing these rights, the media used to collect the data illegally extracted from the database and the materials or instruments that were mainly used to make or manufacture them…

In addition to the reports of officers or agents of the judicial police, proof of the materiality of any infringement of the provisions of Books I, II and III of this code may result from the findings of sworn agents appointed as appropriate by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, by the professional defence bodies referred to in Article L. 331-1 and by the collective management bodies…

The Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée may lodge a complaint and bring a civil action before the examining magistrate in respect of acts constituting the offence of counterfeiting, within the meaning of Article L. 335-3 of this code, of audiovisual works that are prejudicial to the resources allocated to it under Articles L. 115-1 to L. 116-5 of the Code du cinéma et de l’image animée (French…

The rights mentioned in the first part of this code may not prevent acts necessary for the performance of a parliamentary control, jurisdictional or administrative procedure provided for by law, or undertaken for public security purposes.