In an era where creative ideas have become valuable assets, the distinction between the inventor and the writer is attracting considerable attention. Although they both make important contributions to the creative process, the right to copyright may not belong to both. This leads to a big question: Who really has the right to copyright creative works? The following article from VCD will help you.
1. The concept of the inventor and the writer.
An inventor is someone who has the ability to develop and propose new, unique and valuable ideas. They often have the ability to look at problems from many different angles, combining different elements and information.
The writer in English is called “ghostwriter” and is defined as “a person who writes a book for another person, under whose name it is then published” which means “a person who writes a book for another person and will publish it under the name of the person who hired them to write that book. It can be understood that ghostwriting means being in charge of writing. In fact, most of the works created by ghostwriting will have a ghostwriter. This ghostwriter is responsible for recording someone’s story to create the book.
2. The person with the creative idea and the ghostwriter – Who has the right to register copyright?
The subject of all rights has two objects: natural persons and legal entities. In which, the subject of intellectual property rights can be an individual or a legal entity, however, when it comes to the author, it cannot be a legal entity but only a natural person because the natural person is the one who directly creates the work.
The author is the person who directly creates one or all literary and artistic works. The current Vietnamese Intellectual Property Law stipulates that copyright only arises when a work is created and expressed in a certain material form. This means that if a person comes up with an idea but that idea has not been expressed in a material form such as an article, audio recording, video recording, etc., then the work has not been formed and therefore is not protected by law. In other words, copyright law does not protect a work when it is just a creative idea, but the law only protects it when the creative idea is expressed in a certain form.
The Intellectual Property Law also stipulates cases where the author is also the copyright owner and the author is not at the same time the copyright owner. Accordingly, an individual who uses his/her own time, finance and other material conditions to directly create a work is both the author and the copyright owner.
The Intellectual Property Law does not have any provisions on the concept of the person with the creative idea and the writer. But it can be understood that the person with the creative idea and the writer are the ones who support the real author.
According to Clause 2, Article 12a of the current Intellectual Property Law, the person who supports, gives opinions or provides materials for others to create a work is not the author or co-author.
Thus, from a legal perspective, if the person with the creative idea and the writer only perform the work of supporting the author in creating the work, they will not be considered the author or co-author. More clearly, the writer is only the person who implements the author’s idea to create the work in a certain material form. Therefore, the person with the creative idea and the writer are not the creators of the work and therefore are not considered the authors.
In many cases, the person with the creative idea and the writer do not necessarily have to be the authors of the work, but if there is an agreement between the parties, they can still be named as authors. The law does not prohibit the creative idea and the writer from registering copyright, however, they will not be automatically recognized as authors unless there is a clear agreement or if they are the copyright owner. This means that if the author or copyright owner authorizes the creative idea or the writer to submit the copyright registration application, they can do so as usual. However, the author’s name in the copyright registration application will have to be based on the consensus and terms agreed upon between the parties involved. This emphasizes the importance of legal agreements in determining the rights and obligations of each individual related to the work.
Above is the article ” The innovator and the ghostwriter – Who has the Right to register Copyright?” sent to you by VCD. We hope this article is useful to you.
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