In the context of intellectual property becoming increasingly important in economic and cultural life, protecting the rights of authors and their heirs is an essential factor. A question that many people are interested in is: “If the author passes away before completing the registration of intellectual property rights, can the heir register?”. The following article “If the author passes away before registering copyright can the heir register?” from VCD will help you.
1. Legal basis for registering copyright after the author’s passing for the heir.
According to the provisions of Article 105 of the 2015 Civil Code, property includes property rights. Property rights are defined as rights with monetary value, including property rights related to intellectual property rights, land use rights and other property rights. Therefore, copyright (a type of intellectual property right) is also considered property. Article 612 states:
“Article 612. Inheritance
Inheritance includes the deceased’s own property, as well as their share of the property jointly owned with others.”
Accordingly, the deceased’s copyright is considered an inheritance. The heirs of the copyright will depend on whether there is a will or not. If there is no will, the heirs will be in the first order of inheritance as prescribed in Article 651:
“Article 651. Heirs by law
The heirs by law are prescribed in the following order:
a) The first order of inheritance includes: wife, husband, biological father, biological mother, adoptive father, adoptive mother, biological children, and adopted children of the deceased.”
In this case, the inheritance will be divided equally among the first order of inheritance. These individuals have equal rights to the copyright. If they only want one heir, the first order of inheritance can agree to divide the inheritance. Inheritance procedures in this case are also carried out similarly to those for other properties, without any specific differences.
The current Intellectual Property Law stipulates that intellectual property rights for literary, artistic, scientific works, inventions, and trademarks are property rights that can be inherited. Article 37 of the Intellectual Property Law stipulates that property rights related to intellectual property can be inherited by will or by law. Therefore, if the author passes away before registering intellectual property, the legal heir can continue to carry out the registration to protect the intellectual property.
Article 50 of the Intellectual Property Law stipulates that the registration of intellectual property rights, including copyright, can be carried out by the author’s heir. This allows the heir to take over the author’s property rights and carry out protection registration to ensure legitimate interests in the work.
Pursuant to Article 20 of the current Law on Intellectual Property, the heir will inherit the following copyrights:
- Personal rights: publishing the work or allowing others to publish the work (the remaining personal rights are attached to the author so they cannot be inherited).
- Property rights are specifically regulated in Article 20.
- The heir may only exercise the inherited copyrights during the remaining copyright protection period.
2. How to register copyrights when the author passes away for the heir.
When the author passes away, the author’s intellectual property rights, especially property rights, can be inherited and registered by the heir. Article 609 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates that an individual’s property, including property rights related to intellectual property, can be inherited by will or by law. This property right includes the right to exploit economic benefits from intellectual property and therefore the heir can register to protect this property when the author passes away.
An heir who wants to register copyright in case the author has passed away needs to take the following steps:
- Determine the legal heir status: The heir needs to verify and prove his/her inheritance rights, including providing a will (if any) or other legal documents to prove the inheritance relationship according to the provisions of law.
- Prepare the registration documents: The heir needs to collect a complete dossier for intellectual property registration, including documents such as the author’s passing certificate, documents proving the author’s intellectual property rights, along with documents related to the work or invention that the author has created.
- Submitting the application to the Department of Intellectual Property: The application for intellectual property registration must be submitted to the Department of Intellectual Property for consideration and approval. The competent state agency will conduct the assessment and confirm the intellectual property rights of the heir.
Above is the article “If the author passes away before registering copyright, can the heir register?” that VCD sent to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
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