INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

LAW
COPYRIGHT (Part 1)
 Objective

After class, student can:

•Understand what is copyright

•Have knowledge about source of copyright law in different countries

•Understand condition to be protected by copyright

•Understanding who is the owner of the copyright/ related right is the most
important to solve disputes

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 Main content

1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright.

2. Type of copyright

3. Copyrightability

4. Duration of copyright

5. Ownership of Copyright

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 1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright.

What is copyright?
•Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that
creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by
copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to
computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.
(WIPO)

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 1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright

What is copyright?
•Copyright is a right to prevent a work being copied without the copyright
owner’s consent. Copyright also protects against a work being issued to the
public, performed, shown or played in the public, broadcast or adapted.
(Essential Law for Marketers, ArDi Kolah, p. 104)

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 1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright

General rules
•Copyright law of a country grants authors, composers, software writers,
website designers, and other creators’ legal protection for their literary and
artistic creations
•Copyright law gives the author of a work a bundle of exclusive rights over his
work for a limited period of time. These rights enable him to control the use of
his work in a number of ways and to receive remuneration.
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 1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright

General rules
•Copyright law also provides "moral rights" which protect an author's
reputation and integrity
•Copyright associate with every literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to
sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes.

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 1. The basic concepts and rules regarding copyright

General rules
•Copyright come into effect automatically, right at the time the works finish.

•There is no need to register it or take any action

•International cooperation is essential in this age of the Internet and rapidly

expanding use and misuse of digital copyright material

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 2. Type of copyright

What is protected by copyright?

•Literary copyright
•Copyright in sound recordings and films
•Broadcasts and cable programmes
•Other copyright

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 2. Type of copyright

What is protected by copyright?

•Literary copyright
•Copyright in sound recordings and films
•Broadcasts and cable programmes
•Other copyright

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

What is NOT protected by copyright?

•Expired copyrights
•Facts/nonfiction
•News and history
•Ideas
•Scènes à faire
•Fair use of copyrighted works.

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

What is NOT protected by copyright?

• Useful articles: such as bathroom sinks, clothing or computer monitors
(however, the design of a useful article may be protected as an industrial
design, or the object contains pictorial, graphic or sculptural features that can
be "identified separately from the utilitarian aspects" of the article.

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

What is NOT protected by copyright?

• Names, titles, slogans and other short phrases. Single words, names, titles,
slogans, headlines and other short phrases are generally excluded from
copyright protection. But some countries allow protection if they are highly
creative. Logos, on the contrary, may be protected under copyright as artistic
works (as well as by trademark law, if the requirements for such protection are
fulfilled).

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

What is NOT protected by copyright?

• Official government works. Official government works such as copies of
statutes or judicial opinions also have no copyright protection in some
countries.

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

Group discussion: What is protected by copyright?

•A traditional song
•A photo you took for your friend
•A short video on cooking
•News
•The composition of dance movements and patterns
•Legal documents
•Information about pandemic
•Design calendars
•Video games

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)
Copyright & Graphic Works
•Artistic works: works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving
and lithography; photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed
by a process analogous to photography; works of applied art; illustrations,
maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography,
topography, architecture or science (Article 2(1) of Berne Convention)
•Copyrightable graphic works are protected by artistic copyright.

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)
Copyright & Multimedia Works
•Literary work: a report or a specification, a handbook or even a business letter, a
data base, a spoken word, computer programs, …a literary work is ‘any work . . .
which is written, spoken or sung’, so any string of words qualifies as a literary work
•Sound recordings and films: All recordings of sound whether of music, the spoken
word or other types of noise, such as a bird song, and any type of image on film

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

Copyright & Multimedia Works

•Broadcasts and cable programmes: When sounds or pictures are relayed to
the public, whether by broadcasts or by cable services, there are additional
copyrights, also called related to copyright or related right
•Copyrightable multimedia works are protected by many types of copyright.

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 2. Type of copyright (cont.d)

Other types of copyright

•Copyright in paintings and sculptures.

•Copyright in databases and compilations

•Copyright in computer programs

•…..
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3. Copyrightability
1) Expression: Copyright protection shall
Condition to be
extend to expressions and not to ideas,
protected by copyright
procedures, methods of operation or
mathematical concepts as such (Article 9(2)
of TRIPs)
2) Original work

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3. Copyrightability Designers Guild Ltd v. Russell Williams
Case study (Textiles) Ltd [2000] 1 W.L.R. 2416 (U.K.:
House of Lords):
Facts: An original design for a dress fabric:
vertical stripes, with flowers and leaves
scattered between the stripes, all painted in an
impressionistic style.
Is it an idea or expression?
Link:
Designer Guild Limited v. Russell Williams (Textiles) Limited (
Trading As Washington Dc) | [2001] FSR 113 | United Kingdom
House of Lords | Judgment | Law | CaseMine

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3. Copyrightability
Ladbroke (Football) Ltd v. William Hill
Case study
(Football) Ltd [1964] 1 W.L.R. 273 (U.K.:
House of Lords):
Facts: The plaintiff devised a popular football
betting coupon. The defendant copied the
format and bets from this coupon, but gave
some bets new names and worked out the odds
independently.
Was the plaintiff’s work original?

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 4. Duration of copyright
Berne Convention
- Copyright lasts for life and further
50 years after the author’s death
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UK law
- Copyright lasts for life plus further
70 years after the author’s death.
- For copyright works generated
before January 1996, the duration
is life plus 50 years.
- Computer-generated copyright: 50
years from the end of the year in
which the copyright work was
created.
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 4. Duration of Copyright

Vietnamese IP Law
•Moral rights: perpetual (except the right to publish the work)
•Economic rights and the right to publish the work: life of author + 50 years
after author’s death

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 4. Duration of Copyright

Other copyright duration

-In the case of a database, the right lasts for 15 years from the end of the year
the database was created or made accessible to the public
-Copyright in sound recordings or films lasts for 50 years from the year the
film or record was made or, if it is released to the public, 50 years from its
release.
-Copyright in a broadcast or cable programme lasts for 50 years from its first
transmission

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 9. Ownership of Copyright

Author Copyright Owner

A person who actually creates a work
If the author is not an employee, he is
automatically the copyright owner.
Where the artistic work is made by an
employee in the course of
employment, the employer is the
copyright owner.

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 9. Ownership of Copyright
Case study
Kenrick & Co. v. Lawrence & Co. (1890) 25 Q.B.D. 99 (U.K.: High Court:
A person had the idea of creating a voting card for illiterates, by drawing a
hand holding a pen making a cross in a box. Not himself being able to draw,
he asked an artist employed by his firm to make such a drawing. The employer
clearly had the right to decide whether to adopt the finished product or to
throw it away. Nevertheless, when the employer, claiming to be the sole
author of the work, sued a third party for copyright infringement, the court
dismissed the action because it could not accept his claim to sole authorship.
Do you agree with the court’s decision?

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 9. Ownership of Copyright
Case study
Group discussion
•The play “Ngày xưa” is invested by Tuan Chau Group and created by
Director Việt Tú. Due to the disagreement between investor and director, the
contract between them was broken. The director claims his ownership of
copyright of “Ngày xưa”. The investor hired other director, based on ideas of
“Ngày xưa”, to develop another play “Tinh hoa Bắc Bộ”.

Who is copyright owner of “Ngày xưa” and “Tinh hoa Bắc Bộ”? And who
violate these rights?

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 9. Ownership of Copyright
Case study
R Griggs Group Ltd & Ors v Evans & Ors, Court of Appeal - Civil
Division, January 25, 2005, [2005] EWCA Civ 11:
The claimants commissioned an advertising agency to produce the combined
logo for them and paid for the commission. The drawing for the combined
logo was in fact done by the first defendant who, at that time, was working for
the advertising agency on a freelance basis. The terms on which he worked
for the agency were that he was to be paid a standard rate of £15 per hour, it
being recognised that on occasions some work might need to be charged at a
higher rate and some at a lower rate.
Who owns the combined logo?

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 Summary

- Copyright extends to the expression of works, not to ideas;

- There are many types of copyright with different milestones in protection;

- Only the owner can benefit from the protection of IP law for copyright.

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 Thank you for your attention

Questions & Answers

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