What is a Copyright?

Fundamentally, copyright is a law that gives you ownership over the things you create. Be it a painting, a photograph, a poem or a novel, if you created it, you own it and it’s the copyright law itself that assures that ownership. The ownership that copyright law grants comes with several rights that you, as the owner, have exclusively. Those rights include:

 Copyright in Vietnam 

-The right to reproduce the work

-To prepare derivative works

-To distribute copies

-To perform the work

-To display the work publicly

These are your rights and your rights alone. Unless you willingly give them up (EX: A Creative Commons License), no one can violate them legally. This means that, unless you say otherwise, no one can perform a piece written by you or make copies of it, even with attribution, unless you give the OK.

Inversely, if you’re looking for material to use or reuse, you should not do any of these things without either asking permission or confirming that the work is in the public domain, which means that the copyright has expired and all of the above rights have been forfeited. Simply put, if the work isn’t in the public domain and you don’t have permission to use a piece, you put yourself in risk of legal action, regardless of your intentions.

Because, beyond fair use and parody (issues for later essays), the holder of a copyrighted piece has near carte blanche to do what they want with their work. It’s no different than owning a car, a house or a pen. One can lend it out to a friend, sell it, modify it or even destroy it. In short, if you own the copyright to something, you have the same rights that you do with anything else and, in some instances, even more. After all, you did create it. It only makes sense that you would own the fruits of your labor. That’s what copyright law is all about.

ANT Lawyers -  A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

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How do I register copyright for my songs?

Copyright protection attaches as soon as you fix the song in a "tangible medium."

Though many folks are still under the misapprehension that you have to register your work with Copyright Office to "copyright" it, that hasn't been true for decades. Generally speaking, if you scribble something on a sheet of paper and then someone comes around and copies it, they've violated your copyright in the scribble.

Copyright in Vietnam

On the other hand, if you're just riffing in your bedroom and someone comes by, listens in through your window, and then copies your song, you're probably not going to win on your copyright claim. If you riffed and then recorded it, wrote down the music notation, etc., then you would have secured the copyright at that time.

Note, though, that although registration isn't necessary to protect your work via the Copyright Act, it is a precondition to suing in federal court. So if you write down a song in 2001, discover that someone copied it in 2011, you'd have to register the copyright (even in 2011 or 2012) before you could sue on it. Statutory damages would also be limited to the date you registered onward (i.e., you wouldn't be able to claim statutory damages from 2001 to present).

ANT Lawyers -  A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced copyright with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

We assist our clients in all steps of the prosecution phase of IP management.

Source: Quora 

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Registering Copyright Services in Vietnam

Under Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam, copyright means rights of an organization or individual to Work which such organization or individual created or owns. In addition, the subject matter of copyright shall comprise literary, artistic and scientific works; the subject matter of copyright related rights shall comprise performances, audio and visual fixation, broadcasts and satellite signals carrying coded programs.

Copyright in Vietnam 

However, in fact, it is challenging to prove the owner’s copyright if there is no prior prepared evidence. A registration of copyright is the most important proof if violation or dispute happens. The copyright registration shall deter infringement, when owner can prove that the Work is protected under copyright law.

With highly professional staff and great experience in intellectual property aspect in Vietnam, ANT Lawyers would like to support you in registering and protecting your copyright and related rights in Vietnam as following:

Our services in copyright registration

-Provision of professional opinions and advice in relation to registration of copyright and related copyright;

-Advising, preparation, drafting, filing and prosecution of registration of copyright and related copyright;

-Provision of professional opinions and advice in relation to license and assignment of copyright and related copyright;

-Appeal and cancellation;

-Proceedings before the judicial authorities.

How to register a copyright or related rights in Vietnam?

Condition of copyright registration

A Work shall be registered its owner’s copyright if it does meet the following conditions:

-The ideas of the Work shall be presented particularly in a visible material

-The Work shall be original (Be made directly by the author without copying from any other works or people).

Required information and document

-Original Power of Attorney (POA) from the Applicant;

-Information of the author such as: Full name, Identify Card Number, Current address, permanent address; …

-Information of the Works such as: Name, the date of publication (if any), the place of Publication (if any); …

-Business registration certificate or establishment certificate (if applicant is association or organization);

-Written promise of being ownership of the work of the applicant;

-Some other specialized document with each specified aspect.

Note: The POA must be signed by the applicant or a duly authorized representative on behalf of the Applicant and no further notarization or legalization is required.

 Duration of copyright protection

-The following rights are protected forever:

-Right to give titles to their works.

-Right to attach their real names or pseudonyms to their works; to have their real names or pseudonyms acknowledged when their works are published or used.

-Right to protect the integrity of their works; and to forbid other persons to modify, edit or distort their works in whatever form, causing harm to the honor and reputation of the author.

The following rights are protected within the stipulated duration in law

-Right to make derivative works;

-Right to display their works to the public;

-Right to reproduce their works;

-Right to distribute or import the original or copies of their works;

-Right to communicate their works to the public by wireless or landline means, electronic information networks or other technical means;

-Right to lease the original or copies of cinematographic works and computer programs;

-Right to reproduce their works.

The protection duration of each type of Work with the above rights shall be different. In particularly, cinematographic works, photographic works, stage works, applied art works and anonymous works shall have a term of protection of fifty (50) years as from the date of first publication. Other work shall be protected for the whole life of the author and for fifty (50) years after his or her death.

ANT Lawyers -  A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

We assist our clients in all steps of the prosecution phase of IP management.

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Are eBooks protected by copyright?

Copyright, with regard to e-books, is a legal means of protecting them from being freely redistributed or unfairly used.

In the days of the Berne Convention, when copyright was initially introduced, books were printed, material products.

Copyright in Vietnam

Though today, books take on a whole new life with electronic formats, readers, and platforms, the copyright laws that protect a writer’s work from being stolen, shared, and re-sold still apply to e-books.

Nonetheless, with the rise of digital piracy, e-book copyright law has been notoriously difficult to implement in a way that deters people from unfair use of copyrighted material. This is especially the case for self-publishing authors, who neither have the funds or resources to pursue legal cases.

If you want to protect your e-books, you need security that is specific to their “digital” nature.

Digital rights management solutions (DRM) are the industry-standard tools to use if you want to implement e-book protection.

There are 3 main types of protection solutions that can be used to secure your e-books and deter piracy. They include:

Expiring Download Links

Expiring download links allow you to send your e-books for download by customers, with the link expiring after a certain number of uses, or a specified time period.

Watermarking

Watermark technology protects your e-books by imprinting visible or invisible watermarks containing your customer’s personal information on their pages.

Adobe DRM Encryption

This is the industry-standard solution used by major publishers. It enables you to set different permissions for copying, printing, and accessing your e-books. Adobe DRM encryption is the most secure way to protect your e-books.

I recently wrote a blog post for the EditionGuard blog, EditionLink vs EditionMark vs Adobe DRM: Choosing The Right eBook Fulfillment Option, which explains in more detail how to select the right type of DRM protection for your e-books. Check it out to see which one is right for you.

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I have been selling books and realized one of them is a copyrighted. What should I do?

Almost any written work is copyrighted. Rights exist as soon as the proverbial pen leaves the page; i.e., there’s no “copyright application” process or anything like that. (There is a copyright registration process, in which an author deposits a work with the Library of Congress. But this registration process is optional. Moreover, you don’t have to have a copyright notice, i.e., a legend like “(c) 2018, Charles The Patent Lawyer” somewhere in the book. That’s also optional.

 Copyright in Vietnam

In any case, don’t worry. Copyrights do prevent unauthorized reproduction and distribution. But copyrights do not prevent selling works you otherwise lawfully own.

There’s an idea called “exhaustion,” also called “the first sale doctrine.” Roughly speaking, it stands for the idea that a rights-holder exhausts some of the rights associated with a particular copy of their work when they sell the work. Among the exhausted rights are the right to sell that particular copy.

In other words, if I buy a copy of Harry Potter, I am not authorized to reproduce the entire book word-for-word on my blog. I’m not authorized to make copies and give or sell them to my friends. But I am allowed to lend or sell my particular book to others.

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Can I copyright something on behalf of another person?

I’m afraid the Copyright Act beat you to it. Copyright arises automatically under the law at the time a copyrightable work is created and “fixed in a tangible medium of expression” (e.g., drawn on paper, saved in digital format, recorded on tape, etc.). What that means is that your cousin’s logo design was protected by copyright law as soon as she created it, and she has owned the copyright since that time.

What you may be thinking of is the act of registering a copyright with the Copyright Office. Registering a copyright doesn't create the copyright itself — it simply records a person’s claim to a particular copyright with the federal government. (It also provides some very valuable benefits in the event someone infringes the copyright, which is the primary reason most people and businesses do it.) Unfortunately though, you aren't permitted to register someone else's copyright unless you’re acting as the copyright owner’s authorized agent. So, at least assuming you want the gift to be a surprise, the Copyright Office won't permit you to register the copyright in the logo since you don't have your cousin’s authorization. But you certainly can help your cousin do it herself or even ask her for authorization to be her agent for the purpose of registering the copyright.

                                                                                                                                                               

Please click here to learn more about ANT Lawyers IP Practice or contact our IP lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or call our office at (+84) 24 32 23 27 71

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