Advanced Copyright Law - Key Areas in Depth

Introduction

Assuming a detailed working knowledge of copyright law and practice, this full day course will consider a number of key areas in some depth which are rarely covered in copyright sessions.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• A consideration of whether there can presently be copyright or neighbouring rights in a work created “solely” by AI (Artificial Intelligence). The importance of properly classifying a work as either an AI generated work or a computer-generated work (“CGW”). Reasons for and the importance of good record keeping in relation to both sorts of work.
• Exhaustion of Rights - The maybe unexpected but still continuing post-Brexit position.
• 'Agreements to agree' clauses, typically in respect of assignments and licenses, and their enforceability
• When an agreement described as an assignment might be held to be a licence - and vice-versa. Conflict of laws in relation to assignments and licences, especially for domestic and foreign law “reverter” provisions.
• The still continuing 'carry overs' from the Copyright Acts 1911 and 1956, including the 'automatic' assignment reverter provisions still catching out the unwary in the mid-2020s
• The advantages of registering in good time a work - deemed to be a foreign work under US copyright law - with the US Copyright Office
• Authors and Employment - when might an author be held to be an employee for the purposes of s.11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988?
• The position of 'ghost writers'
• An account of copyright in buildings and architects' plans and drawings
• Incidental inclusion and its limits as a permitted act defence to an infringement claim
• A discussion on the boundaries of what might constitute an artistic work
• Copyright subsisting in a work which infringes another?
• Assignor's right to royalties - the potentially serious problem of assigning copyright in exchange for, or partly for, royalty payments.
• Fiduciary duties of publisher-assignees
• The application of moral rights in practice and damages for their infringement