Ochrana předmětů duševního vlastnictví v souvislosti s podnikáním

Ing. Pavel Sýkora

Master's thesis

Protection of the Subjects of Intellectual Property in Connection with Business Activities

Abstract:

The title and the topic of this diploma thesis is Protection of Intellectual Property in Relation to Undertaking. The basic goal of the thesis is to analyze the usage of intellectual property objects (intangible goods) in undertaking and decide whether the existing protection level of their holders is satisfactory. To reach this goal, it is necessary to examine the existing legal regulation first and describe it. Major part of this thesis is devoted to this task. The first chapter starts with definitions of terms. The term intellectual property and its relation to other property are examined. The author concludes that although the law treats the intangible goods in some aspects as eternal and ubiquitous, an intangible good can exist only on a data carrier and can be destroyed. The author tries to identify the core differences between ownership of tangible and intangible goods, and briefly discusses the role of intangible goods in undertaking. Follows an overview of reasons for intellectual property protection, i.e. why and whether it is necessary to provide the creators of intangible goods with exclusive rights. The author believes that the fundamental reason for the existence of the intellectual property protection does not consist in natural law, but results simply from the states striving for higher tax revenue and power in international relations. The second chapter deals with the constitutional fundamentals of intellectual property protection. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants everyone the right to own property, both tangible and intangible, the right to gather and disseminate information and create works of arts, and employees are granted the right for just reward for their work, which also concerns the rewards for inventions, works of authorship, designs and other intangible goods. The limitations of the right to disseminate information are documented on the case of criminal proceedings conducted against the managers of Votobia publishing house pursuant to publishing the book Cooking with Cannabis. The third chapter focuses in more detail on the role of intangible goods as parts of an enterprise. An enterprise is defined as a complex of tangible, intangible and personal entrepreneurial elements. The intangible element comprises among others the entire intellectual property of the entrepreneur, be it works of authorship, artistic performances, sound and video recordings, TV and radio broadcasts, databases, inventions, utility models, topographies of semiconductor products, industrial designs, plant varieties, designations of origin, trademarks, business names, know-how or goodwill. The objects of entrepreneurs ownership are not the intangible goods themselves, but rather the exclusive rights of usage of these objects. The fourth chapter is devoted to the intangible goods covered by copyright and rights related to it, i.e. the works of authorship including computer programs; artistic performances, sound and video recordings, TV and radio broadcasts and databases. The term work of authorship is defined. This chapter deals with the question whether authors are entrepreneurs as defined by the Business Code. In the following text it describes the scope of authors rights to his creations. Closer attention is paid to the works of authorship created by an employee within the scope his work duties and to outsourced works of authorship created on demand for an entrepreneur. The chapter concerns also with the so called related rights, i.e. the rights of performing artist to their performances, the rights of recordings producers to their recordings, the rights of radio and TV broadcasters to their broadcasts, and publishers rights. The rights of database producer are also briefly discussed. There are basically two ways of protecting the above mentioned intangible goods against infringement - technical measures which make infringement more difficult and legal proceedings which, however, usually take place after the infringeme

Abstract:

nt occurred. The basic tools of legal protection against infringement are regulated in four acts: the Author Law, the Business Code, the Civil Code and the Penal Code. The fifth chapter concerns the industrial property or industrial rights. This term covers wide variety of intangible goods. However, the Czech law does not define this term; therefore including some intangible goods into this category may be disputable. The author included in it the following goods: inventions (including biotechnological inventions), utility models, topographies of semiconductor products, industrial designs, plant varieties, designations of origin, trademarks, business names, trade secrets, know-how and goodwill. These intangible goods are dealt with in specific sub-chapters. National, European and international ways of protection are discussed. Where possible, the text is accompanied by examples of use of the particular intangible goods. Specific sub-chapter deals with innovation proposals created by employees. One sub-chapter is devoted to protection of intangible goods through the unfair competition regulation. In the final chapter the author evaluates the sufficiency of intellectual property protection in the Czech Republic. He asserts that the existing regulation should be changed in some aspects. Namely the rights of employees who create intangible goods for their employers should be wider. In the existing regulation, the rights of employers and employees are not balanced well. Another conclusion is that the rights to internet domain names should be regulated by special law, as they are increasingly becoming as important as trademarks and business names. A specific conclusion is drawn up for trademarks - the author believes that colours themselves should not be registrable as trademarks. To limit other entrepreneurs in the colours they are allowed to use on their products is unfair.

Keywords

duševní vlastnictví, intellectual property, podnikání, undertaking, autorská práva, prumyslová práva

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 6. 4. 2006

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 11. 5. 2006
• Supervisor: prof. JUDr. Ivo Telec, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Law

Master programme / field:
Law and Legal Science / Law