As copyright attorneys located in Birmingham, UK, we provide professional counsel on copyright law for businesses, irrespective of their size.
Copyright and database rights form the foundation of numerous business-critical assets for our clients. For instance, within a variety of industries such as computer software, gaming, advertising and marketing, media, entertainment, and publishing, copyright law frequently serves as the main intellectual property right safeguarding digital content. This is just to mention a few.
Specifically, T H SUPPORT SERVICES team of seasoned copyright attorneys can assist you in the following areas:
- Identifying your copyrights and database rights;
- Understanding whether copyright and database rights offer sufficient protection or whether additional intellectual property protection is available;
- Making sure that the copyright chain-of-title is in place (and working to correct any defects that are identified);
- Ensuring your copyrights and database rights are owned by the correct entities;
- Checking that any copyright licences and database licences are properly drafted and that these reflect your commercial objectives; and
- Enforcing your copyrights and/or database rights or defending your position.
Some mistakenly perceive copyright law to be straightforward, and we frequently represent clients who have been disappointed by their previous lawyers due to a lack of essential expertise in copyright or database law to satisfy their commercial aims.
Copyright
In the context of UK law, copyright is an unregistered intellectual property right. This means that copyright is automatically established once certain prerequisites are met.
For copyright to exist, the relevant work must be: (1) original; and (2) identifiable.
What does that mean?
To qualify as original - the relevant work, like a line of code, must represent the "free and creative decisions" of its creator. For instance, if the work is a direct duplication of an existing line of code, it is unlikely to receive copyright protection.
To be identifiable - the work must be "objectively distinguishable" by third parties (and the court). It should be possible to present what the work is that you claim to hold copyright for. If the copyrighted work is a song, is it recorded or is the music noted down?
Once these requirements are fulfilled, the last step is to demonstrate that the copyrighted work belongs to one of the protected categories under UK law, that is: "literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works; sound recordings, films or broadcasts, and the typographical arrangement of published editions".
These categories can be broadly interpreted to encompass a variety of works. For example, both computer code and a character from a popular TV show have been classified under the "literary works" category.
In addition, the nationality or residence of the work's creator and the location where the work was first published should also be considered.
Database Rights
Database rights that are legally protectable exist, acknowledging the commercial fact that databases can turn into valuable intellectual property assets for a business due to the financial resources and time invested in their creation and upkeep.
Similar to copyright, UK and EU database law overlaps, but the definition of a database remains more or less the same, that is, “a collection of independent works, data or other materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and can be individually accessed by electronic or other means.”
Although it may seem complex, UK database rights have been granted even for straightforward PDF documents containing medical results.