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Copyright Protection
LAW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ON THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS AND DATABASES No. 3523-1 of September 23, 1992 with changes and amendments* introduced by the Federal Law No. 177-FL on December 24, 2002 shall govern the relations deriving from legal protection and exploitation of computer programs and databases.
Copyright extends to literary, scientific and artistic works, regardless of the manner in which they are fixed. Legal protection applies to literary works, including computer programs, drama, musical, script and choreographic products and pantomimes, musical pieces with or without lyrics, audiovisual products (feature, television and video films, slideshows, fixed projections and other cinematography and television products), paintings, sculptures, graphic pieces, designs, graphic stories, cartoons and other works of fine art, products of arts, crafts and theatrical art, works of architecture, town building and landscape art, photography works and works produced by means comparable to photography, geographical, geological and other types of maps, plans, sketches and plastic works that have to do with geography, topography and other sciences, and the like.
Foreign author's works published in Russia or abroad are also protected in Russia, pursuant to the Russian Federal Act “ On Copyright and Related Rights ”, 1993 (as revised by the Federal Act of the Russian Federation of 07.19.95, No 110-F3), “ On the Legal Protection of Software and Databases ”, 1992, the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as well as by virtue of Russia's bilateral agreements with certain countries , and some other legal acts.
Copyright is unusual in the way that rights come into existence and are protected from the date of the creation of a work, by virtue of the very fact of its creation, so no formalities ( official recording , etc) are applicable to establish the copyright protection . However, in order to confirm ones' rights, authors often resort to the procedure of deposition and registration of a work with various copyright associations. Deposition is not obligatory and is performed only where the author wishes to do so. Nevertheless, according to the practice such non-official recordal can provide considerable support to furniture proof of authorship, for instance, at the courts and in the event of copyright transfer to business partners.
In order to render legal assistance to authors, Ermakova, Stoliarova and Partners accompany the deposition and registration of any object copyright law extends to. We hereby inform you that we need the following documents for the purposes of deposition of copyrigthable works at the Russian Author's Society:
- Two copies of the original work with the cover page, which features the name of the work, the author's or authors' surname, first name , patronymic (if applicable) and the date of creation . Each page, including the cover page , must be signed by the author/s and numbered.
- A copy of the Abstract – brief (5-7 lines) description of the work. It must be signed by the authors.
- A copy of the author's/ authors' passport – of its first and second pages and the page indicating the place of residence .
- An application form , signed by the author/authors. The form is available upon request.
Recordal and deposition of a copyrightable work is carried out within about 45 days.
For certain cases that involve legal protection of software and databases, official recordal with the Patent Office of Russia is recommended. The recordal is not mandatory under the law , but it may substantially help authors in case of infringement and in the event of contractual assignment of rights by the authors. Our Agency offers support throughout the official recording of software and databases with the Patent Office, and helps to, draft and support official recordal of contracts for the transfer of copyrightable works, software and databases .
Since the majority of the countries are the member-states of the international conventions on copyright , the formal requirements to works for which legal protection is requested have been reduced to minimum in these countries. Nevertheless, some countries, e.g. the USA, practice various formal recording procedures, and in the event such formalities have not been accomplished the copyright holder's chances to counteract infringement are substantially reduced . In the United States it is almost impossible to claim full damages and attorney's fees from an infringing party unless the work is recorded at the US Copyright Office.
Furthermore the law stipulates mandatory recordal in respect of certain works published in the USA, e.g. movies released in the USA . Our Agency has established business relations with reliable partners in the USA – registered patent attorneys and agents , so we are capable of providing optimal protection of works in the territory of the United States including deposition with the US Copyright Office run by the Library of the Congress . |
