A number of people encounter copyrights on a daily basis, whether they create their own work or handle other authors’ creative pieces. What rights do you have as an author, and what as a licensee? What must a licence agreement contain? Read on to become familiar with the answers to these and other questions.
As its name suggests, a creative work must be the result of its author’s creativity. Moreover, it must come in an objectively perceptible form (digital forms included).
What isn’t creative work:
Tip: A copyright extends to both a complete piece of work and its phases or parts, including its title and character names.
Upon creating a piece of work, its author gains moral rights, which can’t be transferred, and economic rights, which may be licensed to a third party. We’ll examine both in detail later on.
Besides any valid agreements that the contractor or employee entered into with the order party, their business relationship at the time of creating the work plays a significant role. The employer automatically gains the copyright when their employee creates some work. On the other hand, a freelancer who creates work for their customers claims the authorship. Authorship itself can’t be sold or donated; the only option to make such a work available for use by a third party is a licence agreement.
We’ll set fair and clear conditions on your behalf – online, tailored to your needs, and for a fixed price.
When a creative work is completed, its author gains the copyrights defined in the Copyright Act. These are divided into two categories: economic and moral.
These entitle the author to exclusively decide about the further use of their work. No other person may use it in any way without their permission. However, the author may grant a licence to use their work. Economic rights apply during the author’s whole life, plus an additional 70 years after their death.
An interesting detail regarding copyright economic rights: With an audio-visual piece of work, the 70-year period begins on the day the last of the following persons becomes deceased: the director, screenplay writer, or music composer.
The rights to use a copyrighted work include:
These are directly connected with the author’s personality and therefore can’t be transferred to anyone else. These rights apply only as long as the author lives. However, this doesn’t imply that the work may be used freely when the author becomes deceased, as their death has no effect on protecting the authorship itself – it can’t be appropriated (the author’s name must always be stated when further distributing their work) or used in a way that would decrease its value. The author’s relative or another close person may claim the right to protect the authorship even when the property rights are no longer valid.
The moral rights include:
An example from the practice of copyright: You might have heard about the dispute between the Prague Zoo and the painter Michal Cihlář, who took action to have fine artwork removed from the zoo’s premises. Although he wasn’t its author, the artwork strongly resembled his original work that he had created for the zoo. The Prague Municipal Court took Cihlář’s side and ordered the zoo to remove the exhibited artwork, upon the grounds that the zoo had negotiated an unclear licence agreement with the painter. In the end, the zoo managed to win the case in 2018, but only after ten years of dragging legal disputes.
In a licence agreement, an author grants to a third person an authorisation to exercise intellectual property rights within the stipulated extent. i.e., the licensee may use the work as if they owned it themselves. Naturally, the agreement must be well-drafted to accommodate its purpose. And although, according to Czech law, a non-exclusive licence needn’t come in writing, we do recommend it to avoid one of the many possible complications connected with a verbal agreemen
An exclusive licence forbids the licensor from granting the same licence to a third person, and from exercising themselves the right to which they have granted an exclusive licence. To illustrate, once an author signs a publishing contract, they may no longer publish their book themselves – they must leave this up to the publisher. A non-exclusive licence allows the author to grant this kind of licence to third persons as well.
Thus, a non-exclusive licence to one piece of work may be granted repeatedly. If a non-exclusive licence was granted before an exclusive one, the latter doesn’t void the former, unless the parties agree otherwise.
Another licence may be granted even with a valid exclusive one already in place. However, the exclusive licensee’s written permission is required – without it, the new licence agreement is null and void.
A tip from solicitor Ondřej Preuss: “Licensees will benefit from an exclusive licence further allowing them to alter the work. I also recommend expanding the licence validity outside the Czech Republic.”
A licence agreement needn’t entitle the licensee to use the work to a full extent – the licensee’s rights may be limited not only regarding the scope, but also the time and place of using the work. Unless the agreement clearly stipulates the ways of using the work, the licence is usually valid only within the Czech Republic and for the time usual for the particular work type.
A licence needn’t terminate upon the dissolution of the licence-holding legal entity or upon the death of the licence-holding physical person. Unless the contract specifically proscribes this, the rights and obligations stemming from a licence agreement are transferred to the legal entity’s successor or the physical person’s heir. If proscribed, the licence terminates.
Alternatively, a licence may be terminated by the licensor’s withdrawal from the contract for either of the following two reasons:
A publishing contract is one of the sub-categories of a standard licence agreement, and allows the licensee to reproduce and distribute a musical piece, a work of literature, fine artwork or a photograph. In contrast to a standard licence agreement, an exclusive licence is granted by default. However, the author has the right to an authorial revision prior to publishing their work, which enables them to modify some of its details.
Another legal term connected with licensing is a sublicence agreement. It functions as an amendment to a standard licence contract, and entitles the licensee to assign the rights obtained by the licence agreement to a third person with the author’s written permission, which needs to be a part of the licence agreement.
The licensee must pay into the hands of the author the licence fees stipulated in the agreement. These come in several forms:
A custom-drafted licence agreement is undoubtedly the best option here – each work is specific and therefore needs to be protected thus to avoid complications, whether they be sanctions or loss of profit. Prevent copyright disputes and entrust us with drafting your licence contract. We’ll have it ready for you within 48 hours; what’s more, our package also includes a 60-minute consultation to ascertain that all matters are resolved.
Our team of experienced attorneys will help you solve any legal issue. Within 24 hours we’ll evaluate your situation and suggest a step-by-step solution, including all costs. The price for this proposal is only CZK 690, and this is refunded to you when you order service from us.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 10 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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