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Understanding the Importance of Treaties

Understanding the Importance of Treaties

In terms of
international copyright law, treaties dealing with the various aspects of
copyrights are deemed to be crucial at the international level. All countries
have their own legislative systems governing copyright laws and impose their
own various regulations, restrictions, and rights, all differing from one
country to the next. International regulation of copyrights, particularly the
recognition of copyright laws among foreign countries, became a growing concern.
Countries would simply not recognize copyrights given under other nations’
policies and copyright laws, and foreign works were free to be infringed or
pirated.

There is no
true international copyright law legislation in place governing the various
aspects of copyrights and their inherent protection rights. All international
copyright laws are really in the form of treaties which, through the collective
agreement of nations, has come to enact as international copyright law. The
importance of treaties in terms of copyright law is paramount.

The
enforcement of other nations’ copyright laws in foreign countries became a
necessity that was finally addressed with the inception of the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886, an agreement among
several nations that took place in Switzerland, in the city that bears the Treaty’s
name.

The Berne Convention would become the first Treaty
to act as an international copyright law by allowing for basic statutes and
regulations provided by its legislature. The Berne Convention was designed in a
way that simplicity would allow for the adherence of copyright provisions at
the international level, while providing for less confusion by having to adapt
to each particular nation’s own copyright laws.

The Berne
Convention would essentially become the model which all international copyright
treaties would follow, while adapting and adding further provisions to account
for certain means such as advancements in science and technologies. With
technology constantly evolving, so did the works and materials that could by
copyrighted. Consequently, so did the means and methods for infringement and
copyright violations.

The World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) formed in 1974 out of the Berne Convention’s original administrative
faction named the United International Bureaux for the Protection of
Intellectual Property, or BIRPI, as it was best known. The WIPO would introduce
the WIPO Copyright Treaty, which is in agreement with Berne Convention
provisions, while providing for further considerations for computer programs
and databases and their copyrights protection. 

It also provides for
restrictions regarding the circumvention of technological or digital copyright
protections, and also instating various circumstances in which such
circumventions may be allowed. Such provisions are similar to those of the
United States’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which undoubtedly drew certain
inspiration from the WIPO Copyright Treaty. 

These
international treaties would prove to be absolutely essential in the governing
of copyrights and protection of the works and authors at the international
level. The lack of international copyright laws as a legitimate body strictly
providing for legislation and methods of enforcements makes these copyright
treaties extremely important. 

In essence, all international copyright treaties
are observed as a cohesive international copyright law and countries that are
under the Berne Convention will continue to respect those basic copyright
provisions as such, at least until the formation of a uniform body or code of
international copyright law is constructed.

What You Need to Know About Trademark Harmonization

What You Need to Know About Trademark Harmonization

The Office for Trademark Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) is the European Union’s (EU) official department responsible for the title registration and recordkeeping of industrial property. 
Jurisdiction
 
 
The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market is considered to be an establishment of the public, which allows for its independence from financial, legal, operational, and administrative at the hands of any governmental agency. However, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market is responsible for adhering to the trademark harmonization stipulation set forth by the European Union. 
 
 
Trademarks Managed by OHIM
 
 
Community Designs: The rights of design afforded to those whom have registered the designs, both partial and complete, with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market. 
 
 
Community Trademarks: The regulation of trademark registration that establishes guidelines and protects the rights of unified trademarks.

Understanding the International Copyright Law Moral Rights

Understanding the International Copyright Law Moral Rights

International copyright laws will often consider the concept of moral rights for inclusion into legislation. However, it is of important consideration that there is no governing body of law regarding the application and enforcement of copyright legislation in a cohesive manner. 
In other words, international copyright laws exist more in the sense of agreements and treaties agreed upon by the participating countries and nations, rather than a broadly applied and adhered to legal system of regulations. 
Moral rights are a concept that not all countries recognize in terms of their own national copyright legislation. Moral rights was originally included in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which acts as the quintessential agreement among its participating nations or signatories as the basis for understanding and implementing a basic guideline regarding copyrights at an international level.
The Berne Convention of 1893 included into its provisions moral rights in 1928. However, it was later amended that countries enacting the copyright regulations of the Convention would have to adhere to all its provisions, with the exception of the moral rights clause. Moral rights differ greatly from economic rights that may be associated with copyright protection and ownership. Moral rights are a collection of certain inalienable privileges attributed to the authors or creators which include:
         The right of attribution;
         The right to the publishing of materials or works;
         The right to have a work published under anonymous or pseudonymous means;
         The right to the inherent integrity of the work;
         The right to the preservation of the work from alteration of any kind.
Moral rights also allow the authors or creators of a particular work to denounce any action that may detract or possibly harm the artists in terms of his/her relationship to the work itself, as well any action taken in such course that may affect the author’s reputation. This also applies even if the author or creator assigns certain copyrights to other parties, regardless of whether the work in question is no longer in the actual possession or ownership of the author or creator him/herself.
Though the nations under the Berne Convention are to abide by its instated regulations, the moral rights clause is one that is not strictly adhered to by many countries because of problems or contradictions it would ensure within their own copyright legislation systems, and such allowed for the optional adherence to moral rights. Moral rights and how they are actually enforced vary by international copyright laws. 
Moral rights in Europe are not able to be transferred to another party, as is the case with the actual copyright, which is considered as property. Authors of works have the right not to enforce such rights, which may be necessary in terms of the economic aspects of copyright laws, and in some cases, choose to employ only specific ones.
Moral rights in Canada, however, are an example of international copyright laws that enforce the concept. Canada’s Copyright Act protects the individuals moral rights in the creation or production of original works.
The exercise of moral rights is best shown through the Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd. Michael Snow was commissioned by the shopping mall for the use of an original sculpture depicting Canadian Geese. The Eaton Centre wanted to decorate the sculpture with Christmas regalia for the season and Snow successfully manage to impede the shopping center from doing so, expressing his moral rights by claiming that it was a form of alteration that he would not and had not allowed or permitted.
Hong Kong is an example of how moral rights may only be applied partially or only to certain works. Under international copyright laws, Hong Kong denied moral rights to the creators of computer programs. Furthermore, they also allowed for the transfer of moral rights to another party upon the death of the original moral rights holder. 
The United States is famously known for not applying moral rights in the general sense. A main reason as to why the United States did not join the Berne Convention until 1988 was because of the international copyright laws containing the moral rights provision. The U.S. reasoned that such adherence to moral rights would result in the necessity of restructuring its entire copyright law legislation. However, the United States does implement moral rights to certain kinds of copyrighted work, namely those of a visual arts nature. This was enacted into legislation with the Visual Rights Act of 1990, which allowed for the following rights:
         The right to claim authorship;
         The right to deny the use of the author’s name on any other work not created by the author in question;
         The right to deny the use of the author’s name on any work that has been altered from the original, and such alteration would defame the author’s reputation;
         The right to deny the destruction of a work of art if it’s considered to be of “recognized stature”.
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