Copyright protection in Chelmsford and other locations throughout the UK is important because copyright exists in original work created by an author automatically without requiring any form of legal registration within a given jurisdiction like in the UK for a limited period of time. Therefore, for business owners in particular, this article should hopefully make interesting reading. This is because the intellectual property in your business could become increasingly significant as the business itself grows.
However, when compared to the recognition of other intellectual property rights, the level of copyright protection in Chelmsford and other locations in the UK could be deemed to be somewhat lacking under the law as it currently stands when compared to the use of patents and trademarks. Nevertheless, everything that can be protected by copyright in the UK as original work is currently provided for in section 1(1) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 under three distinct categories. The categories to have been identified are – (i) literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works that are original; (ii) sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programs; and (c) published editions in the form of typographical arrangements.
Moreover, it is also interesting to note that section 11(1) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 provides for the basic rule that the ‘author’ that created a work is the copyright owner in the circumstances of a given case. This is particularly pertinent point in view of the fact that, unless you are clear in the agreement that is put in place, someone that you employ could effectively own the intellectual property in your business. For example, when building a website it may pay to be clear that your business owns the intellectual property in the website that is produced and NOT the designer.
Nevertheless, it is also to be appreciated that the protection that the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 provides has arguably been potentially undermined through the emergence of a public interest defence. Traditionally, a very narrow definition was originally adopted for such a defence as being applicable to any misconduct of such a nature that it ought in the public interest to be disclosed to others, including crimes, frauds, and other misdeeds. Nonetheless, a more general understanding of the public interest defence now means that the preservation of confidences was to be outweighed by a countervailing public interest in favour of disclosure. Despite the development of this understanding, however, UK courts have always found there is a wide difference between what is ‘interesting to the public’ and what is considered to be ‘in the public interest’ to be made known.
That the protection provided for by copyright law has been potentially undermined through the emergence of the public interest defence is supported regarding the position pertaining to section 16(1) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. This is because, whilst section 16(1) provides a copyright owner has exclusive rights regarding, for example, original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works that are protected for a duration of 70 years, the emergence of the public interest defence (i.e. copyright may be overridden for public interest reason) challenges the automatic protection under the Act.
It is also arguable that the protection of copyright for the ‘authors’ of original works is derived from the recognition of their moral rights pertaining to the material they have produced regarding the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or under a pseudonym, and the right to its integrity. This is because it has long been recognised in the UK it is impossible for ‘authors’ of original work to assign or even waive their moral rights. The reason for this is that the copyright in property can only really be licensed because of the fact that it is not deemed ‘property’ in the physical sense of say, for example, a car. Therefore, this effectively means that the ‘author’ of original work may need to actually ‘assert’ their moral rights in their work before their enforcement for the intellectual property in the work to have any lasting value.
Contact Andrew Douglas Wills and Legal Services today via www.andrewdouglaswills.co.uk to see how we could help you sort out copyright protection in Chelmsford and other locations throughout Essex.
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