Why it is necessary to document and to register the copyright for a web site.
One of the ways to protect your site from counterfeit, copying and creating clones is the official state procedure of registration of copyrights for a web site.
The fact of registration of the copyright and the possession of the Certificate of Ukraine of Protection of Copyrights to Site officially confirm the following:
— person or persons which are authors of the site;
— person or persons who possess proprietary copyrights to the site;
— the date and the state number of such registration;
— name of the site (domain name on which the resource is placed can also be specified in the name of the site).
The period of validity of such registration is the entire life of its author or authors, and in some cases it is valid even after their decease.
It is not necessary to renew the validity of the author’s registration on annual basis (as it happens with patents to inventions, to useful models, and to the industrial design).
The owner of the copyright to web site is entitled to sell, transfer it as a gift, evaluate, and grant the license for using it.
If the owner of the copyright to web site is a legal entity, it is entitle to valuate the web site as intangible asset and, in such way, to increase its authorized capital, or to calculate (valuate) the price of royalty in order to sell the license for using such site.
If owners of the web site are individuals, they are also entitled to grant to any other individual or legal entity which is interested in that the license for use of such site. For such use, the authors are entitled to receive remuneration – royalty.
Having documented and registered the copyright to the web site, you receive the possibility to use the Certificate o Registration of your site for lodging claims against persons who may use your site in unlawful way in the Internet in the form of copy, clone, etc.
If you have in place a documented state registration of copyright to the web site, you have the following exclusive proprietary rights:
— to use your copyrights to the site (to gain profit from using the site; to gain profit from sale of the site; to carry out the evaluation of your rights to the site);
— to authorize the use of the copyright item – the site – by other persons (to grant license for the use of the site against the payment of royalty or without payment);
— to prohibit to other persons the unlawful use of the copyright item – the site – or the copy of your site, fragments of the site and of the content.
How to document and to register the copyright to web site in Ukraine
Many our clients often ask: can they obtain a patent for their site? The answer is: no patents are issued for web sites in Ukraine and other European countries, they are not patented, but a Certificate of Registration of Copyright can be obtained for the site. Patents and above mentioned Certificates in the territory of Ukraine are different protection documents which are issued by the State Service for Intellectual Property of Ukraine for different items of intellectual property (a patent can be obtained to inventions, useful model, or industrial design).
Copyrights to web site can be protected in two ways:
— as a computer software in the form of source code;
— as design and text content of main pages of the web site.
If the site is registered as “computer software”, the copyright will protect the source code of pages (or not the entire source code, but just the main fragment of the code using which the web site can be identified).
If the general design and the text content of the web site are registered, the copyright will protect all visual and graphical and text elements of the page.
Also, the entire web site can be registered as both “computer software” and the “design, text” – in a single registration certificate.
In order to document and to obtain the Certificate of Ukraine of Protection of Copyrights to web site, you can contact our company (through any specified emails or by a phone call), and within one day we will provide you with the list of required documentation for accomplishment of that procedure.
The period of time needed for the state registration of copyright is 2-3 months. The Certificate of Copyrights Protection is issued by the State Institution for Intellectual Property of Ukraine (Kyiv).
Who can document property right to web site in Ukraine.
The copyright to web site can be documented and registered by:
— the author of the web site (individual) – programmer + designer + copywriter as a single person;
— a group of co-authors (individuals) — programmers + designers + copywriters;
— a legal entity, in case if the author (authors) of compute software are employees of that legal entity and have created such computer software within the frames of their work duties for that very legal entity being their employer.
More to that, a legal entity can become the holder of copyrights to web site in case if it has been created on the order of the legal entity (the ordering party) by individuals (authors of the site being contractors) who are not employees of that enterprise (legal entity being the ordering party). In such case, it is possible to carry out the state registration of the Agreement of Transfer (Alienation) of proprietary copyrights to the web site between the author (authors) and the legal entity (the ordering party of the development).