Copyright law, protection of intellectual property

Copyright law extends to pieces of literature, scientific and artistic works, performed in any material form.

Law protection applies to works of literature (including computer software), drama and musical pieces, theatrical scripts, pantomimes, musical pieces with or without lyrics, audiovisual pieces (motion, tele- and video films),slide films, transparency films and other types of motion and tele – production, paintings, sculptures, graphical works, designs, graphical stories, comics and other art production, works of decorative art and scene art, architectural works, municipal engineering works, horticultural and parks works, photographic works, photographic analogues works, geographical, geological and other maps, plans, sketches, plastic works referring to geography, topography and other sciences, other works.

The works of foreign authors published in Russia as well as in other countries are protected in Russia pursuant to the Russian Federation Law : “On copyright and related rights” 1993 (in the redaction – of the Federal Law of the Russian Federation of 19.07.1995, ¹ 110-FZ), the Russian Federation Law “On law protection of computer software and databases”, 1992, the International Copyright Convention and Bern Convention for protection of literary and artistic works and the bilateral agreements between Russia and other independent states as well as some other legal normative acts.

The peculiarity of the copyright law is that that the rights appear and are granted protection from the very time of creation of the work by the mere fact of its creation. Thus there is no need in fulfilling any formalities (e.g. state registration etc.). However to confirm their rights authors often resort to the procedure of deposition and registration of their works in the copyright organizations. Deposition is not obligatory and is performed only on request of the author. Nevertheless in many cases it can play an important role in proving the authorship, for example in court and in cases when commercial rights for some works are transferred to business partners.

In order to provide legal protection to the authors, we accompany the deposition and registration of any object copyright law extends to. We hereby inform you that the following documents are needed for deposition of copyrightable works.

1. Two copies of the original work with the cover page, featuring the name of the work, author(s) name(s) and date of its creation. Each page, including the first one must be signed by the author(s) and numbered.
2. Àn abstract (one copy) - concise (5-7 lines) description of the object, signed by the author.
3. A copy of the author(s)’ passport –the first and the second pages and the page on which place of residence s indicated.
4. Application form signed by the author (send on request).

Registration and depositon of a copyrightable work usually takes one week.

In special cases involving law protection of software and databases, official registration with the Russian Patent office is recommended. Such registration is not obligatory under the law, however it may be essential in cases of infringement and in the event of assignment of rights by the author. Our agency provides support in the official registration of software and databases with the Russian Patent Office. We also provide support in working out and registration of the agreements concerning transfer of rights for copyrightable works, software and databases.

As the majority of the countries are the member-states of international Copyright Conventions, the formal requirements to works for which law protection is requested, have been minimized. Nevertheless in some countries (e.g. in the USA), there are different registration procedures, without which the chances of the copyright holder to counteract infringement are usually very low. In the USA it is almost impossible claim damages and attorney expenses from the infringer without registration of the work in the US Copyright Office.