Copyright is one of the important intellectual property rights, which aims to protect the rights and creative efforts of the author for the work they create or own. One of the rights that the author has is to transfer the right to use the work to another organization or individual. However, there are cases where copyright is not allowed to be transferred. The following article of VCD will help you.
1. What is copyright?
According to Clause 2, Article 1 of the current Intellectual Property Law, the concept is as follows: Copyright is the right of an organization or individual to the work they create or own.
Thus, copyright includes specific rights granted by law to the author or owner of a work, such as the right to name or pen name on the work, to have the real name or pen name mentioned when the work is published, to be copied, adapted or transmitted, to disseminate the work to the public, etc.
Copyright has some of the following outstanding characteristics:
- Copyright is aimed at protecting the form of expression of the work.
- The form of establishing rights is based on an automatic mechanism.
- Copyright limited transfer.
2. Cases where copyright cannot be transferred
According to Article 45 of the current Law on Intellectual Property, “The transfer of copyright and related rights is the act by which the copyright owner or related rights owner allows another organization or individual to use for a limited period one, some or all of the rights specified in Clause 1 and Clause 3, Article 19, Clause 1, Article 20, Clause 3, Article 29, Clause 1, Article 30 and Clause 1, Article 31 of this Law”.
Thus, the groups of rights that are allowed to transfer copyright include:
Personal rights
Naming the work.
Publishing the work or allowing others to publish the work.
Property rights
Property rights such as Making derivative works; Directly or indirectly copying the whole or part of the work; Broadcasting and communicating the work to the public; Distributing and importing for distribution to the public;
Performers’ property rights such as: Broadcasting, communicating to the public the fixed version of their performance; Fixing their live performance on a sound recording, video recording; Leasing the original or a copy of a cinematographic work, computer program;
Property rights of producers of sound recordings, video recordings such as: Copying all or part of their sound recordings, video recordings; Distributing, importing for distribution to the public; Commercially leasing to the public the original, a copy of their sound recordings, video recordings; Broadcasting, communicating to the public their sound recordings, video recordings;…
Broadcasting organizations’ rights such as: Broadcasting, rebroadcasting their broadcast programs; Fixing their broadcast programs; Directly or indirectly copying all or part of their broadcast program fixation; Distributing, importing for distribution to the public.
For the transfer of copyright, the author is not allowed to transfer the following personal rights:
- To have his/her real name or pen name on the work; to have his/her real name or pen name mentioned when the work is published or used;
- To protect the integrity of the work, not to allow others to edit, cut or distort the work in any form that harms the honor and reputation of the author.
- For the transfer of related rights, the performer is not allowed to transfer the following personal rights:
- To be introduced by name when performing, when releasing audio recordings, video recordings, or broadcasting the performance;
- To protect the integrity of the performance image, not to allow others to edit, cut or distort in any form that harms the honor and reputation of the performer.
The transfer of copyright rights is carried out through a copyright license contract, according to the provisions of Article 48 of the Law on Intellectual Property, this contract must be made in writing. The main contents of the contract include:
- Full names and addresses of the transferor and the transferee.
- Basis for transfer.
- Scope of transfer.
- Price and method of payment.
- Rights and obligations of the parties.
- Responsibilities in case of breach of contract.
- In addition, the implementation, amendment, termination or cancellation of the contract will be applied according to the provisions of the Civil Code.
According to Article 41 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP, the issuance of a new Certificate of Copyright Registration and Certificate of Related Rights Registration shall take place when there is a change in the copyright owner, related rights owner, or information related to the author, work, performance, sound recording, video recording, or broadcast program.
Meanwhile, transferring the right to use copyright is only allowing the use of copyright for a certain period of time without transferring ownership. Therefore, transferring the right to use is not considered a change of copyright owner, and therefore, there is no need to carry out the procedure for issuing a new Certificate of Copyright Registration.
Above is the article “Cases where copyright cannot be transferred” that VCD sent to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
