In the process of creating and exploiting a work, authors or businesses do not always complete the copyright registration procedure in time before bringing the work to market. Many intellectual products are widely shared, commercially exploited or publicly announced but do not yet have a Copyright Registration Certificate. This makes many people wonder: if a dispute arises, will unregistered works be protected by law? This is a familiar but easily misunderstood issue, especially when many people think that “if not registered, there is no protection”. The following “Are unregistered works protected in the event of a dispute?” VCD article will help you understand better.
What are unregistered works?
Unregistered works are works for which the author or owner has not submitted an application for registration to the Copyright Office and therefore has not been granted a Copyright Registration Certificate. Even if the work is not registered, if it has been created and expressed in a certain material form such as a handwritten manuscript, recording, design, music, image or electronic file, it is still considered a work according to the provisions of law.
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 6 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property (amended and supplemented in 2022), copyright arises automatically from the moment the work is “expressed in a certain material form”, regardless of the registration procedure. Thus, not registering copyright does not cause the work to lose protection under Vietnamese law.
Thus, “not registered” does not mean “not protected”. The important thing is that the work must exist in a form that can be proven and have the author’s independent creative mark.
Conditions for a work to be protected
A work, even if it has not been registered, is still protected if it meets the conditions under Articles 14 and 15 of the Law on Intellectual Property. First of all, the work must be directly created by the author, not copied from another person’s work. The work must also be expressed in a specific form, meaning it can be recognized, copied or stored by some means; pure ideas that have not been expressed are not protected.
In addition, the work must belong to the group of objects protected by law such as literary, musical, artistic, photographic, architectural, applied fine arts, computer programs, etc. At the same time, the work must not fall into the exclusion cases under Article 15, such as pure news or legal documents. Only when these conditions are met, will the work be considered to have protection value, even if it has not been registered.
Are unregistered works protected in the event of a dispute?
When a dispute arises, unregistered works are still fully protected by law under Article 198 of the IP Law, including the right to request the termination of the infringement, the right to request compensation for damages, and the right to request the State agency to handle the violation. However, the biggest difference compared to registered works lies in the burden of proof.
Due to the lack of a Copyright Registration Certificate – which is considered legal evidence under Article 49 of the IP Law, the author must provide the basis to prove the copyright and the time of creation. Evidence may include the original manuscript, original design file, editing history, email exchanges, audio recordings, sketches or digital evidence proving the time of creation. The assessment of evidence is within the jurisdiction of the Court under Articles 95 and 96 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code.
In practice, when both parties to a dispute claim to be the author, the party that can prove the time of creation of the work earlier will have an advantage. In cases where one party has registered first, they will have a great advantage because the Certificate is considered strong evidence confirming ownership. In that case, the unregistered party must make an effort to prove that they created first or prove that the other party’s registration is dishonest—this is often very difficult.
Therefore, unregistered copyright works are still protected when a dispute arises, as long as they meet the protection conditions under the Law on Intellectual Property. However, not registering makes the process of proving rights more complicated, potentially risky and can be disadvantageous to the author or owner when a dispute occurs. Therefore, copyright registration procedures are still a measure to minimize legal risks, create a solid basis for establishing rights and ensure the ability to protect rights quickly and effectively.
Above is the article “Are unregistered works protected in the event of a dispute?” that VCD sent to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
Sincerely,
Yes. According to Article 6 of the 2005 Intellectual Property Law (amended in 2022), copyright arises automatically as soon as the work is expressed in a certain material form, regardless of registration or publication. Therefore, in the event of a dispute, unregistered works are still fully protected by law, as long as the author or owner can prove the creative process and the time of creation of the work.
In the absence of a Certificate, the author must prove ownership of the work. Evidence may include: original manuscript, design file or audio recording, metadata, email exchanges, witnesses or other relevant documents. According to Article 198 of the Law on Intellectual Property, this proof is mandatory and helps the Court determine the author’s rights, although the absence of a certificate will make the process of protecting rights more difficult and take more time.