Conflicts of law rules play an important role in the application of national intellectual property laws.

Courts determine which national lawis to be applied in the case by applying conflicts of law rules. They are applied when the parties are from different countries or the activities at issue transpired in different countries.The courtmust decidewhether the law of the country of the plaintiff or the defendant, or of some other country should be applied. In a recent case, Itar-Tass RussianNewsAgency sued Kurier, a Russian-language newspaper inNewYork that copied articles originally published by Itar-Tass, for copyright violation. Itar-Tass claimed Kurier’s publications of its articles violated the Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention.

Underwhat law is the ownership of the articles to be determined? Does the Russian copyright owner have standing to sue for infringement in U.S. courts?

Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc., 153 F.3d 82 (2d Cir. 1998).