Creative works are formed based on creative ideas. The protection of creative works is very necessary in today’s society. However, the question is whether ideas are protected by copyright or not. Please read VCD’s article below for more information.
1. What is an idea?
An idea is an abstract concept, often understood as thinking or creating a new concept or new method to solve a problem. Ideas often originate from human intelligence, experience, and knowledge and can be applied in many different fields, including science, technology, art, business, education, society, and politics.
In general, ideas are contents that express opinions and thoughts that take place in a person’s brain before they take an action. In the context of copyright, ideas can be the initial desires that drive the author’s creativity and motivation to complete his work.
2. Are ideas protected by copyright?
Creative works to be protected by copyright must meet the following criteria:
- The work must be original. Originality means that the work must be formed from the author’s creative labor, not copied in whole or in part from another work.
- The work must be shaped in a certain physical form. That means creative works must be completely designed and formed from content to form to qualify for protection. If the work is only in the form of thoughts and ideas and has not been put into practice, it is not protected.
- Conditions on the subject of copyright: Being a Vietnamese or foreign organization or individual whose work is published for the first time in Vietnam but has not been published in any other country; is a Vietnamese or foreign organization or individual whose work is published simultaneously in Vietnam within 30 days from the date that work is first published in another country; are foreign organizations and individuals whose works are protected in Vietnam under international copyright treaties to which Vietnam is a member.
However, if a work is to be perfect, it must come from the author’s ideas. But if the author just lets his “work” stop at the idea stage, there will not be enough basis to help the state agency determine whether he owns that “work” or not. If you want to be protected, creative works must be formed in a definite physical form, because ideas can be similar but if they are created in different ways, each work has the same meaning and distinct mark.
This content is affirmed in Clause 1, Article 6 of the Intellectual Property Law on the basis for arising and establishing copyright as follows: “Copyright rights arise from the moment the work is created and expressed in a form certain material, regardless of content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered. Therefore, a work is only protected by copyright for the expression of ideas in a certain creative form and will not be protected by copyright for the idea itself.
Above is the article “Is the idea protected by copyright?”. We hope this article is useful to you.
