The importance of protecting your work with Copyright

An author is every legal person who creates an artistic or literary work and the government gives him or her the recognition of all their creations according to their rights.

The work must be an original creation susceptible of reproduction by any other means.

The legislation of the copyright is part of the intellectual property, this is divided in two branches: industrial property and copyright.

The protection of copyright covers expressions, but not ideas, procedures, operation methods or mathematical concepts, and it may or may not protect elements such as titles, mottos or logos thad depend on the paternity of the work.

The author has specific rights which are classified in two:

• Personal right or moral right.

This copyright recognizes the creator of the work for its release and protects it to avoid deformations or mutilations of this work.

• Economical right or patrimonial.

The author has the faculty of exploiting his work by himself, besides he’s the one who decides to authorize or prohibit to other parties the exploiting of his work within the limits established by the Copyright Federal Law.

The validity the Copyright has is during the whole author’s life and 100 years after his death.

Works the Copyright protects according to the 13th article of the Copyright Federal Law:

• Literary
• Musical with or without lyrics
• Drama
• Dance
• Pictorial or drawing
• Sculptural and plastic ones
• Cartoon and comic
• Architectural
• Cinematographies and other audiovisual works
• Radio and television programs
• Computer programs
• Photographic
• Works of applied art, including graphic or textile design
• Compilation works, integrated by the collections of works such as: encyclopedias, anthologies, works or other elements such as databases.

To detect if a work is protected, one must have an “intellectual copyright notice”, this is marked with the symbol “©” or by the words “intellectual copyright” followed by the date of the first release and the name of the owner of such rights.

The works protected by copyright are creatives in regard to the choice and disposition of the means of expression, whether work, musical notes, colors and forms.

The works that have this protection cannot be used without the consent of the author, while the ones that aren’t protected are considered of public domain and may be used freely; however, som works that have expired may also be of public domain.

Each country has its own Copyright Law, so, in order to assure your work in Mexico is protected and there aren’t any other similar to it, you must come to the experts who will guide you in this topic.

In Quadrans, we have the experience and professionals who will help you protecting your work.

Legal and accounting consulting at Playa del Carmen