Copyright transfer can be understood as the transfer of part or all of the property rights and personal rights that are allowed to be transferred by the author or owner of the work to individuals and organizations. other. In particular, two forms of rights transfer include assignment and transfer of author’s rights to use. Therefore, in essence, what are these two forms of transfer like and how are they different according to Vietnamese law? In this article, we will focus on clarifying the general provisions of Vietnamese law on copyright transfer to help understand the core nature of each form.
1. Transfer of copyright and related rights
According to the provisions of Article 45 of the Intellectual Property Law, transfer of copyright and related rights is the transfer of ownership of property rights and some other rights by the copyright owner or related rights owner. Moral rights belong to copyright and related rights. When transferring copyright or related rights, the transferor will terminate its ownership rights to one, several, or all of the property rights under the copyright or related rights. This must be distinguished from the owner only transfers the right to use copyright and related rights but still retains ownership of those rights.
The content of these transferable rights is specifically stipulated in Article 19, Article 20, Clause 3, Article 29, Article 30, and Article 31 of the Intellectual Property Law. In particular, transferable rights include the right to name the work; the right to publish the work or allow others to publish the work; property rights in works of authors, copyright owners, and performers; property rights of producers of audio and video recordings, rights of broadcasting organizations (copying, distributing, leasing audio recordings, video recordings, shaping broadcast programs, broadcasting…).
According to the above regulations, the owner or author of the work may not transfer the following rights, including:
- The author may not transfer moral rights including:
- Put your real name or pseudonym on the work; be given your real name or pseudonym when the work is published or used;
- Protect the integrity of the work, do not allow others to edit, mutilate or distort the work in any form that harms the author’s honor and reputation.
- Performers may not assign moral rights including:
- To be introduced by name when performing, when releasing audio or video recordings, or broadcasting the performance;
- Protect the integrity of the performance image, do not allow others to edit, mutilate, or distort in any form that harms the performer’s honor and reputation.
Note, in the case of a work, performance, audio recording, video recording, or broadcast program with co-owners, the transfer must be with the agreement of all co-owners; In cases where there are co-owners of works, performances, audio recordings, video recordings, or broadcast programs that have separate parts that can be separated for independent use, the copyright owner, the owner Related rights holders have the right to transfer copyright and related rights for their separate parts to other organizations or individuals.
2. Transfer of rights to use copyright and related rights
According to the provisions of Article 47 of the Intellectual Property Law, transferring the right to use copyright and related rights is the act of the copyright owner or related rights owner allowing another organization or individual to use it with permission. term of one, several, or all of the property rights under copyright and related rights. Unlike the transfer of copyright and related rights, the transfer of use rights allows people other than the owner to use and exploit the work according to the agreement between the two parties on the scope, term, and purpose of use, but the transferor still retains the role of the owner of copyright and related rights.
Regarding the subject of the transaction, personal rights and property rights that are allowed to transfer use rights are specified in Article 19, Article 20, Clause 3, Article 29, Article 30, and Article 31 of the Intellectual Property Law as follows:
- Name the work;
- Publish the work or allow others to publish the work;
- Property rights according to regulations such as: making derivative works, performing works in public, directly or indirectly copying part or all of the work,…;
- The property rights of performers include fixation of their live performance on audio and video recordings; copying directly or indirectly one’s own fixed performance; broadcasting or otherwise transmitting to the public its performance not in a format that is accessible to the public; Distributing to the public originals and copies of your performances through sale, rental or distribution by any technical means accessible to the public; commercially rent to the public originals or copies of their performances that have been fixed in audio or video recordings; broadcast and convey to the public the outline of their performance;
- The rights of producers of audio and video recordings include direct or indirect copying of their audio or video recordings; import and distribute to the public originals and copies of their audio and video recordings through sale, rental, or distribution by any technical means accessible to the public;
- The rights of broadcasting organizations include broadcasting and re-broadcasting their broadcast programs; distributing to the public its broadcasts, shaping its broadcasts; Copy your broadcasts;
- The author is not allowed to transfer the right to use moral rights, except the right to publish the work; Performers are not allowed to transfer the right to use moral rights according to the law.
In case a work, performance, audio recording, video recording, or broadcast program has co-owners, the transfer of copyright and related rights must be agreed upon by all co-owners. own; In cases where there are co-owners but the work, performance, audio recording, video recording, or broadcast program has separate parts that can be separated for independent use, the copyright owner, the owner-related rights holders can transfer the right to use copyright and related rights for their particular part to other organizations or individuals.
Organizations and individuals that are transferred the right to use copyright and related rights may transfer the use rights to other organizations and individuals if they have the consent of the copyright owner or related rights owner. Because this is a type of civil contract, in which the parties’ agreement comes first.
Above is the article “General provisions on transfer of copyright and related rights according to Vietnamese law”. We hope this article is useful to you.
