What is copyright?
In simple terms, if you have the benefit of a copyright, you own a type of intellectual property that protects your original work from being used by anyone else without your express agreement. It provides you with the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display and perform creative work that has been produced by you. It prevents any one else from reproducing your work without your consent.
Owners of copyright can use, sell or license a work to a third party. The work must have some skill, labour or judgement in the creation to qualify as being something that can have the benefit of copyright, as well as being original.
Copyright is one of four main areas of intellectual property which also covers how patents work, designs, and trademarks.
However, where you have designed a product for instance, that single item can actually be covered by all four main areas: for example, a new lock mechanism could be covered by a patent for the mechanism, by a design for the appearance, by a trade mark for a logo and by copyright for the installation instructions. So it is important to know and understand if you have the benefit of a copyright, but also whether you also have the benefit or other forms of intellectual property.
Who owns a copyright?
The 'author' of a copyright will be the person who has created the work and that can be one person or could be more than one, in which case there will be joint ownership. In that instance it is important that this is made clear in any agreement and again in the context of Will writing that the Will writer understands the ownership, how that is apportioned and what the agreement sets out in the event of one/ both of the owners passing away.
Can I give my copyright away either in my lifetime or in my Will?
As soon as the work has been 'created' and is original the copyright will exist and belong to the person who has created it.
Copyright is a property right that can be bought, sold, inherited, transferred, and this can be in full or part. It can be gifted to someone else in your Will. However, this does not extend to or include what is known as a 'moral right'.
Moral rights
A Moral right is the collection of personal rights given specifically to authors of literature, drama, music and other artists such as films directors. It is the right:
To be identified as the author/ director when a piece of work is published
To object to any negative use of their work
Not to have copies of their work issued to the public.
A moral right will remain the property of the original author and cannot pass to their estate on death.