Law of Intellectual Property 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law of Intellectual Property 2 - Essay Example Legal issues that arise out of the case under consideration is whether there has been any infringement on the part of Julian who has used the photographs and paintings which Techno Ltd has compiled in a DVD under licence from Howard who is the owner of the original photographs and paintings. Whether Julian has committed the act of secondary infringement? Whether Julian is liable to Techno ltd which makes the DCD under licence or to Howard, the original owner or to both. Artistic work Section 4(1) (a) defines an â€Å"artistic work† to include photograph among other items regardless of artistic quality. S 4(2) (a) & (b) define â€Å"graphic work† to include â€Å"any painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart, or plan and any engraving, etching, lithograph, woodcut or similar work. Section 12 prescribes duration of a copyright in artistic work among other items as 70 years expiring at the end of the 70th year from the calendar year in which the author dies. If the work is c omputer generated, duration ends at the 50th year from the end calendar year in which the work was made. This means that copyrights subsists during the life time of the author of a literary work and continues for 70 or 50 years after his death as the case may be. In the present case copy right on the photographs of Howard’s grandfather can be argued to have expired in 2008 i.e 70 years from the year of death of Howard’s grandfather. Most of the artistic works however are Howard’s own and he is entitled to copyrights over his own photographs during his lifetime plus 70 years (N.A., 2007). Under the Copyrights, Designs, Patents Act 1988, (CDPA) it is an offence to carry out the following restricted acts without the owner’s consent. The acts are copying the work, renting, lending or issuing copies of the works in public, perform, broadcast or show the work in public. And adapt the work (UKCCS, 2000). Howard’s engagement of Techno Ltd to compile a digi tal data base includes all that he possesses and it may amount to secondary works since the data base would include his late grandfather’s artistic works. Secondary works are also original works since compilation involves ‘skill labour and judgement’. In Warwick Films v Elsinger (1969), the defendant’s claim that the books copied from were not original works was countered by the court as both books as original as they had undergone considerable selection from the manuscripts to constitute originality (Colston & Galloway, 2010, p. 293). The data base has been licensed to Techno ltd by Howard and both decide to include data base of their DVD the shipping directory published by Ship Ltd. This DVD has now been acquired by Julian exploits the information contained in the DD for his own book meant for children using the photographs and paintings of Howard. In the absence of terms and conditions of license, it is assumed that they both have become co-owners of th e copy rights for the contents of the DVD. By publishing Howard’s grandfather photographs that remained unpublished even after 70 years of his death now in the DVD, they both acquire what is called â€Å"publication right† that is equivalent to â€Å"copy right† which however enjoys protection only for 25 years from the year of publication In this connection, an exclusive license should be in writing and signed by the owner. This authorizes the licensee to the exclusion of all other