The Ownership Problems of Overlaps in European Intellectual Property (Munich Intellectual Property Law Center - MIPLC)

Intellectual Property rights are expanding and, thus, overlapping more than ever before. This poses challenges to a system devised as comprising a set of isolated compartments, each with its defined purpose. The diverging rules concerning ownership and entitlement can lead to different rights on the same object being owned by different persons. What happens then? This question is addressed under European law, focusing on the existing corpus of EU primary and secondary legislation and jurisprudence and the national laws of France, Germany and the UK. Five specific cases are considereded: trade marks and designs, trade marks and copyright, designs and copyright, data-base sui generis right and copyright and copyright and patents in the field of computer programs. Some solutions to the problem, namely convergence of ownership rules, avoidance of overlaps, prevalence of the closest regime, abuse of rights, implied licences, and expanding copyright solutions by analogy, are analysed. Cover 1 I – The legal framework of ownership and overlaps 18 A. Introduction: the problem 18 1. The phenomenon of overlaps 18 2. Why are split ownerships a problem? 23 3. Methodology 27 4. Sequence 29 B. The ownership of copyright 30 1. Author’s rights vs. copyright 31 2. Special cases of ownership 33 a) Employee’s creations 34 1. Work for hire 34 2. Presumed assignment or licence 35 b) Several authors 36 1. Joint Works 36 2. Connected works 37 3. Collective works 38 4. Copyright in cinematographic works 39 II – Cases of ownership problems of overlaps 41 A. The case of trade marks & designs 41 Prior design 41 Prior trade mark 44 Summary: 45 B. The case of trade marks & copyright 46 Summary: 51 C. The case of registered designs & copyright 51 Summary: 57 D. The case of databases: sui generis right & copyright 57 Summary: 61 E. The case of software and computer implemented inventions 62 Summary: 65 III – Possible solutions to the problem 66 A. The extent of the problem 66 B. A general solution? 67 1. Avoiding the problem 67 a) Avoiding overlaps? 67 b) Avoiding differences in ownership? 69 2. Prevalence 69 3. Contractual or quasi-contractual solutions 70 a) Implied licence 70 b) Abuse of rights 72 4. Expanding copyright-internal solutions by analogy 73 a) On Analogy 74 b) Connected works 77 c) Joint works 78 IV – Conclusion 80 Annex 82 Annex I: The interface of designs and copyright under Russian law 82 Annex II: Selected Legislative Provisions 85 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 85 The Copyright (Industrial Process and Excluded Articles) (No. 2) Order 1989 88 Ireland Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 88 Austrian Copyright Act 89 German Copyright Act 90 French Intellectual Property Code 93 Italian Copyright Act 95 Portuguese Copyright Act 98 Greek Copyright Act 102 Dutch Copyright Act 102 First Proposal for a Council Directive on the legal protection of databases COM (92) 24 final, 13 May 1992 103 European Copyright Code 104 Bibliography 106 Books 106 Articles and Contributions to edited books 108 Research papers 114 Official documents and other materials 115 Cases 115 Immaterialgüterrechte expandieren und sie werden immer weitreichender. Dadurch kommt es zu Überschneidungen von Rechten. Was passiert, wenn zwei verschiedene Personen unterschiedliche Rechte an dem selben Objekt innehaben? Wie geht man mit möglichen Kollisionsfällen verschiedener Rechteinhaber um? Diese Fragen beantwortet das vorliegende Werk.