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"The software licensing market in Europe is going through a turbulent period, and at the heart of this turmoil is a major legal battle between Microsoft and ValueLicensing. This conflict pits the tech giant Microsoft against a British reseller of used licenses, ValueLicensing, and could have significant repercussions for the entire software sector. At stake is a crucial question: the ability of resellers to legally resell used software licenses, a market that has been thriving until now but is potentially under threat." "Le marché des licences logicielles en Europe traverse une période de turbulences, et au centre de cette agitation se trouve un affrontement juridique d’envergure entre Microsoft et ValueLicensing. Ce conflit oppose le géant de la technologie Microsoft à un revendeur britannique de licences d’occasion, ValueLicensing, et pourrait avoir des répercussions considérables sur l’ensemble du secteur des logiciels. En jeu, une question cruciale : la capacité des revendeurs à revendre légalement des licences logicielles d’occasion, un marché jusqu’ici florissant mais potentiellement menacé"
JJH Enterprises Ltd (trading as Valuelicensing) v Microsoft Corpn
"The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled Microsoft cannot block customers from reselling perpetual software licenses, marking the end of a years-long debate."
"The dispute rumbled back and forth until Microsoft made a surprising pivot. Instead of denying wrongdoing, Microsoft argued that reselling perpetual licenses infringed its copyright. It also claimed that the practice of companies selling only a portion of their licenses was not permitted."
"The hearing resolved the key question of whether Microsoft's Windows and Office fall outside the EU’s copyright exhaustion rules for software, which allow the resale of perpetual software licenses, because of the inclusion of literary and artistic works including fonts and clip art. This decision is a significant statement of the legal foundation for the software resale markets in the UK and across Europe."