Blog

3PB’s specialist intellectual property barrister Mark Wilden Mark Wilden Call: 2018 acted again for, in this case the successful respondent, JJH Enterprises (trading as ValueLicensing), in two appeals brought by Microsoft against decisions of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for which judgment was handed down yesterday.

The UK Court of Appeal has handed down a judgment dismissing two appeals brought by tech giant Microsoft against second-hand software reseller JJH Enterprises, trading as ValueLicensing. The ruling firmly establishes the jurisdiction of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) over complex intellectual property disputes embedded within antitrust claims and clarifies the boundaries of digital copyright exhaustion in Europe.

Microsoft has lost its appeal over copyright matters in an antitrust claim over software licensereselling brought against it by ValueLicensing. At the UK Court of Appeal, Microsoftchallenged findings from the Competition Appeal Tribunal that said ValueLicensing didn’tbreach copyright rules through its resale of licenses.

The Court of Appeal has upheld two rulings of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in favour of JJH Enterprises Limited, trading as ValueLicensing, dismissing Microsoft's challenge to both the tribunal's jurisdiction and its findings on copyright exhaustion. The judgement, handed down on 7 July 2026, clears the way for ValueLicensing's substantial damages claim to proceed.

"The UK's Court of Appeal has dismissed Microsoft's appeal against a ruling that ValueLicensing (VL) can resell pre-owned software licences. The judgment, handed down July 7, follows a ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in November that customers could resell their licenses, even if Office contained clipart. The judgment is unambiguous on both counts. On copyright, the Court of Appeal agreed with the CAT that Microsoft's reasoning would lead to "odd results." "It would mean that all that was necessary to avoid the effect of UsedSoft would be to incorporate some icons or clip art with the program," the judgment noted."