[The IPKat] In memoriam: Judge Marko Ilešič (1947 – 2024)

[Eleonora Rosati]

In memoriam: Judge Marko Ilešič (1947 – 2024)

 Eleonora Rosati Sunday, June 23, 2024 - Eleonora Rosati, in memoriam, Marko Ilešič

Judge Marko Ilešič

The IPKat was extremely saddened to learn about the passing, on 21 June 2024, of Judge Marko Ilešič of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Our deepest condolences go to Judge Ilešič’s family, friends, and colleagues at this extremely difficult time.

As summarized in the press release from the Court:

Born in 1947, Mr Marko Ilešič was, inter alia, a professor at the University of Ljubljana, a judge at the Ljubljana Labour Court and President of the Union of Slovenian Jurists Associations. With a long-standing interest in sports law, Mr Ilešič was also President of the Sports Court of Slovenia and a member of the appeal courts of various sports bodies and associations. Mr Ilešič was the first Slovenian judge appointed to the Court of Justice on 11 May 2004. He was elected President of the Chamber by his peers and served in that capacity for two successive terms, between October 2012 and October 2018.

IPKat readers will most likely know that Judge Ilešič was Judge Rapporteur in some of the most important EU internet and IP cases litigated before the CJEU over the past several years, also analyzed on this blog. In the IP field, for example, he acted as rapporteur in cases like: GS Media, Ziggo, Spiegel Online, Funke Medien, Pelham, YouTube, and Poland in the copyright field; and mk advokaten, Coty, Louboutin , Lännen, Halloumi, and Legea in the trade mark field.

At a recent Amicuria copyright-focused seminar at the Court

He was instrumental not only to clarifying the interpretation of and construing relevant EU IP provisions, but also in establishing – on a material level – a real internal market for IP-based content and services.

On a personal note, I am extremely sad and shocked. I cannot but express all my gratitude, respect, and admiration to him. Since the beginning of my career, my professional focus has been the case law of the CJEU in the copyright field: I have spent several days of my life reading, thinking about, and commenting CJEU judgments, in particular those having Judge Ilešič as rapporteur.

Together with Advocate General Szpunar, Judge Ilešič has always been an extremely welcoming, amusing, generous, and kind host and friend to me, including in the context of the copyright-focused roundtables organized by Amicuria in Luxembourg and also some events that I organized myself.

My last email exchange with him was just a few days ago and, of course, it was in Italian since Judge Ilešič spoke several EU languages fluently. He knew and read everything that was published in the IP field and his office at the Court was full of IP books.

Grazie per tutto, caro Giudice Ilešič!

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