In the case of a work created by multiple authors, the people who work together on the work are called co-authors. More specifically, how is co-authorship understood and what rights does co-authorship have? To answer the above questions, we will present them specifically through the following article:
1. Concept of co-authorship
According to Article 12a of the Intellectual Property Law, authors and co-authors are regulated as follows:
“The author is the person who directly creates the work. In cases where two or more people directly create a work with the intention that their contributions are combined into a complete whole, those people are co-authors.
“A person who supports gives comments, or provides materials for others to create a work is not an author or co-author.”
In addition, according to Clause 2, Article 6 of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP, co-authors are explained as those who directly co-create part or all of a literary, artistic, or scientific work and other people, support, give comments, or provide materials for others to create works that are not recognized as authors or co-authors.
Thus, a co-author is a person who, together with at least one other author, directly creates a work to form a complete whole, regardless of those who support, contribute ideas, or provide materials. other.
2. Rights of co-authors according to the provisions of law
Depending on each specific case, co-authors may have different rights. Based on whether joint ownership can be divided or not, co-authors have different rights in the following two cases:
- Co-authors create works where each person’s work can be separated for separate use without affecting the work of the other co-authors. In this case, the copyright to the work is considered similar to partially jointly owned property. At that time, the co-authors will have moral and property rights over that separate part.
- Co-authors create works where each person’s performance cannot be separated for separate use. In this case, copyright over the work is similar to property under common ownership that cannot be divided. Moral rights and property rights to the work are jointly owned by all co-authors, therefore the exercise of moral and property rights to the work must be with the consent of all co-authors.
On the other hand, based on the distinction between the copyright owner being the author or another individual or organization investing in finance and facilities, co-authors have different rights in the following two cases:
- The author is also the owner of the copyright: Co-authors are joint owners of literary, artistic, and scientific works and enjoy the rights of the author, including moral rights and copyrights. product. Suppose a person who is a co-author composes a separate part of a work that can be separated and used independently without prejudice to the parts of other co-authors. In that case, that author has full moral and legal rights. property rights to that particular part.
- The author is not the copyright owner at the same time: If the work is created according to assigned tasks or under a work assignment contract from an agency or organization, the property rights belong to the assigning agency or organization. , and moral rights belong to the co-authors. Co-authors have the right to receive remuneration and royalties from the agency or organization that assigns the work. The copyright owner is the person to whom the rights are transferred by the author, then the co-authors hold one or several personal rights and property rights according to the agreement. Besides, especially for the right to name the work and the right to publish the work, which are moral rights, co-authors can agree with the copyright owner on who holds these rights.
At the same time, according to 12 (3) (a) of the Intellectual Property Law, the exercise of personal and property rights for works with co-authors must be agreed upon by the co-authors, except in cases where the work may be separated for independent use without prejudice to the shares of other co-authors or other laws providing otherwise.
3. Legal services supporting the transfer of copyright for works of Vietnam Copyright Development Company VCD
With a team of experienced legal experts, VCD is confident in supporting customers on issues related to the field of intellectual property, in general, to dispute and request regarding copyright transfer with the work in particular. With the motto of always protecting the legitimate rights and interests of customers, VCD tries and ensures to support customers and carry out work in the fastest, most timely, and effective way, regularly reporting on service progress work as well as providing a next action plan so that customers can easily monitor and evaluate work results. Customers can completely trust and feel secure when using VCD’s legal support services.
Above is the article “What is considered a co-author? What rights do co-authors have?”. We hope this article is useful to you.
