Hello Everyone,  

We want to briefly report to you on our first hearing in the proceedings against PANArt before the Court of Berne. The hearing took place on Monday, 11 October 2021. It was set up as a first hearing in the early stages of the proceedings, which was held essentially to give every side the opportunity to summarize their key arguments and give first explanations on the instruments to the judges. We think that it was a very good hearing. We were able to explain the instruments to the judges and had the impression that the judges understood them very well. The court did not indicate any preliminary opinion on any of the legal issues at stake, but that could also not be expected at this stage of the case. The court also asked the parties whether a settlement was possible, and we will certainly explore the options further, although it appeared at the hearing that the parties’ respective positions are far apart so that it might be difficult to come to a settlement.

If no settlement can be reached, the case will continue with a further exchange of written submissions, in which we would be able to further explain our factual and legal arguments as well as to present and offer further evidence. After today’s hearing, we are confident that we are on the right track.

Colin, David and our lawyers will do a Q/A session as part of the Handpan Day stream tomorrow at 21:00 MET (Berlin, Paris) / 15:00 EDT (New York) / 12:00 PDT (LA) / 3:00 (Tokyo). For further information you can check out the Handpan Day Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/handpanday

with best regards,

the HCU admin team