ECJ, 3 July 2012, C 128/11
On 3 July 2012, the ECJ rendered a judgment in a case between Oracle and
UsedSoft. This case was about used (or second-hand) software
licenses. The referring court - the German Bundesgerichtshof -
asked questions about this to the ECJ. In brief, the ECJ ruled that
Oracle no longer had the right to control the distribution of its
software, which had already been downloaded previously under a
license agreement.
The Facts
Oracle markets software that clients can download through its
website. The software can also be supplied on a CD or DVD. This
dispute is about software for which Oracle offers licenses for a
maximum of 25 users. The license agreement grants a non-exclusive
non-transferable use right for an unlimited period. UsedSoft buys
and sells used licenses. Among other things, it buys licenses for
Oracle software from parties that no longer need the software, or
when such parties have fewer users than the maximum number of
