Copyright
The right known in Common Law as copyright is extremely vast.
It covers everything which is considered as an original and tangible creation.
As a result, this includes all kinds of objects, artistic work, paintings, sculptures and photographs, but also furniture, clothing, jewellery, software, etc.
As part of our advisory and litigation work, our firm assists clients in protecting and defending their copyrights.
Prior to any litigation, and to prevent disputes from arising, we carry out the following services for our clients:
This is « an agreement whereby the author of an intellectual work or his/her assignees grant a person – a publisher – the right, under established conditions, to manufacture or to have manufactured a number of copies of the work so that it can be published and distributed ». This is the definition of a publishing agreement according to Article L.132-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code. This agreement is a necessary prior step for the author to take in order to protect their interests before having their work published.
A publishing priority agreement creates a link between the author and the publisher. As a result of this link, the author undertakes to give the publisher priority for their future works. The publisher then has the option of whether or not it wishes to publish the work. This is an agreement which is often used with young authors, where the publisher is taking a commercial risk in publishing their works. It provides the publisher with a way to ensure the possibility of a return on investment.
This is an agreement whereby the publisher requests an author to create or translate a work. This agreement also formalises the transfer of the author’s rights on its use as in a standard publishing agreement. However, this agreement is different since the publisher does not know the work at the time of signing the agreement. The publisher therefore has the option of requesting modifications to the author of the work or the translation. Under certain conditions, the publisher can also refuse to publish the work if it so wishes.
This agreement is also known as an exclusive recording agreement, whereby an artist undertakes to complete a given number of recordings in return for the payment of a salary from the producer to the artist. This agreement also formalises the transfer of related rights from the artist to the producer, granting the producer use of the recordings.
A synchronisation agreement allows a musical work to be used in a new audiovisual production. This agreement binds the audiovisual producer and the author of the work or their publisher. The author or publisher then grants the right to use the musical work and the right to adapt it to fit a specific sequence in an audiovisual work.
This agreement, as with the synchronisation agreement, formalises the right of the audiovisual producer to use a musical work. In this agreement, the musical work already exists and was not created for the purposes of the production. Moreover, the work cannot be modified by the audiovisual producer.
These agreements regard the practice of sampling. This consists of using samples of pre-existing musical extracts in order to create a new work. An agreement is therefore necessary because it is important to obtain prior authorisation from the author(s) and also the publisher in question, in the event that the author(s) of the original works has/have granted them the property rights.
An online music distribution agreement allows a distributor to be granted the management of intellectual property rights over musical works. Therefore, the distributor will usually contact a producer or any other person who has legally acquired these rights, to whom the distributor will pay a contribution. However, it is important to note that physical works distributed via mail order sales websites are not covered by this agreement.
This agreement formalises the transfer of the author’s rights on an architectural or urban work to a third party, which may be the general contractor or the project owner. The objective of this transfer – which may include the work itself, as well as all the graphic or visual elements regarding the design of the work – is to allow the construction of the work as well as the use of the image.
It is important to note that only original and sufficiently materialised architectural works can be covered by intellectual property law.
When an artist creates a work in the field of visual arts and wishes to transfer their property rights over this work, they must formalise this transfer through an agreement. This visual arts transfer agreement can vary depending on the nature of the work so that the specific features of the work can be taken into account.
A co-publishing agreement for musical works allows a songwriter to jointly grant the use of their works to a publisher and a co-publisher. The publisher and co-publisher come to an agreement on the division of the various tasks regarding the use of the songwriter’s works. They are responsible for optimising the promotion of the works, enabling the widest distribution possible, protecting them and, where necessary, defending them.
Like traditional publishing agreements, a publishing agreement for online books formalises the transfer of the rights of the book’s author to a publisher in order to publish and distribute the work. The difference is that this work is in a digital format such as a file which can be read or downloaded via a network such as the internet.
This agreement formalises a request from an audiovisual producer to a composer to create a new musical work.