Global regulations
At the top of the hierarchy of norms, international treaties regulate the global world. Intellectual property’s principles are defined by several treaties; in particular: Bern’s Convention, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and attached covenants, World Trade Organization.
To implement the essential requirements proclaimed by these treaties, the European Union has adopted several directives. The European Directives on Copyright 2001/29 & 2019/790 specify that authors own “exclusive right to authorize or prohibit any communication to the public of their works.”
New practice
Several courts’ decisions enforced the rights of the authors. In a famous case, Oracle claims royalties against Google concerning the creation of the Android. The District Court of North-California concluded that the “structure, sequence and organization of an API is copyright-able”
The Supreme Court denied the certiorari petition of Google on June 29, 2015. Through this denial, it expressed its agreement with the District Court’s judgment.
Creators
Creative activities are becoming part of today's’ work. Most companies today request creative activities from their employees. Accordingly, they now introduce in their employment contracts special provisions transferring to their benefit the rights on all creations made by their agents
We need a standard to register and share all creations. This is an immense potential for change.
