Copyright - The Important Issues for Corporate & Commercial Lawyers

Introduction

This webinar is suitable for corporate and commercial solicitors and in-house counsel who advise clients on transactions and commercial agreements that involve copyright works including software, website content, music, photographs, artworks, publications and computer-generated works.

It will explore in detail several copyright issues relating to ownership, assignment and infringement.

The webinar assumes a basic working knowledge of general copyright law and practice.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Ownership:
• Who owns the copyright?
• Issues that can arise when copyright is created by employees and consultants
• Jointly owned copyright
• Correcting defects in copyright ownership that arise in the context of a corporate transaction or getting the business ready for a sale
• Assignment:
• Has the copyright been properly assigned?
• Making sure that pre-existing and future copyright is properly assigned
• Is the agreement a licence or an assignment?
• Avoiding unexpected pitfalls
• Drafting the assignment document
• Copyright infringement and ‘substantial part’:
• Has the copyright been infringed?
• Establishing whether there has been copying of a substantial part and implications of the Infopaq decision
• Copyright infringement and the boundaries of ‘fair dealing’:
• Can the business rely on the fair dealing exception?
• A look at some of the case law on this exception
• Copyright in computer generated works, including a brief discussion on copyright in works created by generative AI tools

This webinar was recorded on 18th December 2023