INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW - Essay Example In order to give Dicky proper legal advice, it would be in order to understand the exact terms and conditions that his employment or engagement with Smythe and Dickinson stated. The importance of this contractual agreement would be to know if Dicky’s terms of employment terms provision spelled out agreements on whether the company was either the sole owner or joint owner of any work produced in course of employment (Sumpter 2006, p.77).. This is because section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act states the criteria for ascertaining the ownership of any copyright material and provides that any work produced in the course of employment belong to the employer who is deemed as the first owner. In the event that there are no such terms or regulations, Dicky will be perfectly be in a right position to fully own the work. Under the copyright laws in England, there are certain qualifications that one has to fulfil before they are fully covered or protected by the law on copy right. First, a person must be a citizen of Britain based on the qualifications that are set by the British Nationality Act 1981 (Ross 2008, p.46). The other requirement is originality, it has to be ascertained that without doubt the work (Valuation Guidelnes) was his (Dicky’s) own expression of ideas and invention to be the first owner under Copyright, Designs and Patents Act S.11(1). This is of interest, as it will help in understanding the actual position of the nature of the legal position from which the company is claiming rights. Dicky can argue that the company has no copyrights over any of his productions when he undertakes it independently even if employed by Smythe and Dickinson. The other requirement to gain copyright is fixation, as was held in the Merchandising Corp v Harpbond (1983), for instance the work has to be in a material form of which the valuation guidelines are in print and Dicky’s Antiques is in a DVD. Having ascertained Dickys terms of employm ent, citizenship, fixation and originality such that the Valuation Guidelines were his creative creation work; Dicky should understand the rights that a copyright holder have in relation to that particular original idea, which is automatic in UK upon meeting copyright requirements. Section 16 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act gives the copyright holder the right to copy the work and issue it to the public as well as broadcasting the work in a cable service program (McCombs 2011, p.21). All copyrighted material must possess originality as proposed in the case of University of London Press v University Tutorial Press (1916) 2 CH 601. This case discussed the doctrine known as sweat of the brow doctrine and if the word â€Å"original† is taken to refer to the originality of an expression for a certain piece of work to gain copyright protection (Harms 2008, p.133). The concept of originality tries to evaluate the relationship between the author of a particular piece of wor k and his work and is essential for a piece of work to gain copyright protection in England. This is expressly provided for under Section 1(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.1(1) and involves judicial reasoning and logic in the solution of cases. In order for Dicky to succeed in his defence, he must