The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (also known as the Berne Convention) was signed in Berne (Switzerland) in 1886 and was the first convention in the world to establish and protect copyright between sovereign states. The Convention currently has over 180 countries as members, including Vietnam. As a member of the Convention, Vietnam has gradually researched and promulgated regulations on Intellectual Property that meet the content requirements set by this Convention for Member States. In this article, we will discuss some compatibility points in Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law with the content of the Berne Convention.
1. Basic content of the Berne Convention
Firstly, the Convention stipulates the types of protected works that are relatively complete and comprehensive, with a comprehensive nature. Accordingly, the works are divided into the following 3 groups:
- Original works in the fields of literature, science, and art regardless of form or mode of expression, such as books, pamphlets, and other writings, lectures, plays, music, graphics, architecture…
- Derivative works as long as this work does not prejudice the copyright of the original work: For example, translations, imitations, etc.
- Collections of literary and artistic works (anthologies, encyclopedias) if selected and arranged according to a certain content to create a creative work.
The Convention also allows countries to have the right to provide protection or non-protection when the work has not been assigned a physical form and a separate protection method with legislative, executive, and judicial documents. The Convention does not protect daily news and trivial data of journalistic information because they are not the result of creative activities.
Secondly, the Convention also stipulates conditions for protection. Accordingly, protected works will normally have to satisfy at least one of the following two criteria:
- Author nationality criteria: The author must hold the nationality of one of the member countries of the Berne Union or have a permanent residence in one of the member countries of the Berne Union.
- Criteria for the place of first publication of the work: The work must be published for the first time in one of the member countries of the Union or simultaneously in a country inside and outside the Union.
Thirdly, the Convention stipulates protected rights including economic rights and moral rights. Property rights include the rights of translation, reproduction, adaptation, public performance, public narration, and public communication. Moral rights include the right to name the author and the right to object to any distortion, mutilation, or other infringing modification of the work that may harm the author’s honor and reputation.
Fourthly, the Convention stipulates that the general term of copyright protection is throughout the author’s life and 50 years after the author’s death. In the case of co-authors, the term of protection will be calculated until 50 years after the death of the last co-author. For those member states of the Union bound by the Rome Statute of the Berne Convention which, at the time of their signature, the applicable national regulations provided for a shorter term of protection than that provided for in the Berne Convention, that country may maintain a shorter period when acceding to or ratifying this Act The Convention also reserves the right for each member state to stipulate a term of protection for literary and artistic works that may be longer than the term stated in the Convention but must not exceed the term of protection in that country. original work, unless otherwise specified in the country. The deadline is calculated from January 1 of the year following the death of the author or the event specified in the Berne Convention.
2. Some compatibility points between Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law and the Berne Convention
Vietnam joined the Berne Convention on October 26, 2004. Soon after, Vietnam passed the Intellectual Property Law in 2005, which took effect in 2006. Vietnam has built a strict mechanism to protect copyright both domestically and internationally water Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law has several points compatible with the Berne Convention as follows:
- Regarding protection standards:
The Berne Convention and Vietnam Intellectual Property Law both stipulate the protection of created works and must be expressed in a certain material form without protection in the form of ideas. Works are protected regardless of content, quality, form of expression, medium of transmission, and language.
- About protected objects:
All works in the fields of literature, art, and science are subject to protection as stipulated in the Berne Convention and Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law. Protected objects can be: Textbooks, textbooks, lectures, literary works, architectural works, diagrams, music, cinema, theater… However, different from the Bern Convention There are no regulations on subjects that are not protected. Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law has provisions in Article 15 on subjects that are not covered by copyright protection, including pure current news reporting; Legal documents, administrative documents, other documents in the judicial field, and official translations of such documents; processes, systems, operating methods, concepts, principles, and data.
- About the time when copyright arises:
Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law follows the principle of automatic protection (also known as automatic protection) recognized in the Bern Convention. Accordingly, copyright arises as soon as the work is shaped into a certain physical form, regardless of copyright registration procedures and whether the work has been published or not.
- Regarding limitations on copyright and related rights:
The provisions of Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law in Article 25, Article 25a, Article 26, Article 32, and Article 2 are completely consistent with the provisions of Article 10 and Article 10 (bis) of the Bern Convention.
The Bern Convention permits citation from a work that is lawfully available to the public, provided that the citation is by good practice and does not exceed the purpose of the citation; permission to use works for illustration purposes for teaching; Allows reprinting in newspapers, broadcasting or online information of articles of current economic, political or religious nature that have been published in newspapers or magazines, or works that have been broadcast of similar nature to works where the author does not specifically hold copyright, provided that the origin of the work and the author’s name are clearly stated.
Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law has specified the regulations on copyright limitations in the Bern Convention in Article 25, Article 25 (a), and Article 26 by listing cases of use of published works that do not require permission license, do not have to pay royalties but must provide information about the author’s name and the origin of the work; non-infringement exceptions for people with disabilities; In cases of using published works, permission is not required, but royalties must be paid, and information about the author’s name and origin of the work must be provided.
Regarding related rights, in Articles 32 and 33 of the Intellectual Property Law, the law lists cases of using published performances, audio recordings, video recordings, and broadcasts that do not ask for permission, do not have to pay royalties but must provide information about performances, audio recordings, video recordings, broadcasts and other cases of using published audio and video recordings that do not require permission but must be Pay royalties, must provide information about audio and video recordings. Therefore, it can be seen that Vietnamese law has absorbed the spirit recognized in the convention, developing more detailed regulations on the limitations of copyright and related rights without completely going beyond the scope of the convention the framework of the Bern Convention.
- Regarding the enforcement of regulations on copyright and related rights:
Vietnamese law currently applies three methods: civil sanctions, administrative sanctions, and criminal sanctions to ensure law enforcement, which are specifically stipulated in the Civil Code, Civil Procedure Code, Law on handling administrative violations, and Penal Code Specific measures include temporary emergency measures, compensation for damages, confiscation and destruction of evidence, control of counterfeit goods at the border, fines, and prison sentences.
Meanwhile, according to the provisions of the Bern Convention, (i) a member state of the convention can confiscate imported copies of musical works without the author’s permission (Article 13); (ii) The Government of a Contracting State shall have the right to control the circulation, presentation, and exhibition of works using its legislative or executive powers which the provisions of this Convention may not derogate from. violate the above rights in any form (Article 17); and (iii) the Bern Convention also allows member states to establish greater protection than that provided by the Convention (Article 19). Therefore, the provisions on the enforcement of copyright and related rights of Vietnamese law do not conflict with the content of the Bern Convention.
In general, the provisions of Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law are consistent with the provisions of the Berne Convention. This demonstrates the inheritance and absorption of provisions of international law in the field of intellectual property in Vietnamese law.
Above is the article “A few compatibility points of Vietnam’s intellectual property law with the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works”. We hope this article is useful to you.
