In artistic or scientific creation, ideas are always the source of every work. However, a common question is: is an idea alone enough to be protected by copyright? This is a confusing issue and is also common in practice when many authors and creators wonder about the boundary between ideas and works. The following article from VCD will help you.
1. The legal basis of copyright only protects the form.
The Berne Convention stipulates that “literary and artistic works” include all works in the fields of literature, science and art, regardless of the method or form of expression, such as books, articles, dramatic works, cinematography, graphic works, paintings, architecture, sculpture, etc., must be protected by copyright.
According to the Berne Convention Guidelines, ideas cannot be protected by copyright. Ideas themselves can be protected by patents – a form of intellectual property protection independent of copyright, which is often stipulated in patent laws of countries. More specifically, for inventions, a person who has publicly announced his idea has no other way to prevent others from using that idea, while copyright protection for an idea right after it is expressed is the protection for the expression of the idea in the form of words, notes, drawings. Therefore, only the expression of an idea can be protected by copyright, not the idea itself.
In creative life, there is a common misconception that many people think that “just thinking of an idea is enough to have copyright”. In fact, intellectual property law does not protect ideas, but only protects works when those ideas have been expressed in a specific form. This is a basic but very important principle in determining the scope of copyright protection.
Accordingly, according to Article 6 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam (amended and supplemented in 2022), copyright arises from the moment a work is created and expressed in a certain material form. That means, for an intellectual product to be considered a “work” and protected, it must exist in a specific form, can be seen, heard or copied, such as a written poem, a recorded piece of music, a drawn picture, or a filmed clip.
2. Why does copyright only protect the form of expression, not the idea?
Based on the legal basis analyzed, some basic reasons can be given as follows:
First, ideas are abstract and limitless. Ideas are just the beginning of a creative process, they can exist in the minds of many different people without any signs to determine the boundaries. If the law protects ideas, it means that one person can monopolize vague thoughts, causing society to be “framed” in creativity. This goes against the goal of promoting the development of knowledge and art.
Second, ideas are very difficult to prove and difficult to enforce. When a dispute arises, if a person only claims that “I came up with this idea first”, the competent authority has almost no basis to determine the authenticity. Only when the idea is expressed in a specific form such as a manuscript, drawing, music, etc., will there be a basis for comparison and contrast to protect the author’s rights.
Third, not protecting ideas helps encourage diverse creativity. Many people can start from the same idea, but the way of expressing and creating is completely different. For example, with the same theme of “school love”, each writer and poet has a very unique way of exploiting and building the work. If only one person holds exclusive rights to this “idea”, then a series of literary and cinematic works will never be born.
In reality, there have been many disputes in which one party claims that “their script/musical film idea has been copied”. However, the dispute resolution agency often only considers the specific form of expression such as detailed script, plot structure, dialogue, scene staging, etc. for comparison. If it only stops at the idea level, for example “a film about a girl from the countryside who goes to the city to make a living”, then there is no legal basis to conclude that it is a copy. Therefore, authors and creators need to be clearly aware: only when turning ideas into specific products, will the work be protected by law and become effective evidence when disputes arise.
Above is the article “Why does copyright only protect the form of expression, not the idea?” that VCD sent to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
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