Autorių teisės į darbuotojo sukurtus kūrinius

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problematic of copyright in work created by employee. With a help of comparative method a comparison of legal regulation of transfer of author’s economic rights to employer in foreign countries is made: in the copyright tradition states it is claimed, that the employer is initial owner of copyright of work created by employee performing the employment agreement; in the droit d’auteur tradition states the presumption of transfer of the economic rights of authors to employer is not foreseen; the Law on copyright of Republic of Lithuania and some other states (Russia, Estonia) provides that the economic rights of authors for works, created performing the employment duties according employment agreement, are granted for employer. The employer is treated as derivative holder of copyright for the period of 5 years, except for the computer programs, where the transfer of economic rights is non-terminated.
The author of the article tries to find a criterion for delimitation of works which are created performing the work functions (duties) according employment agreement from those which are created not in the frame of employment agreement. The conclusion is made that the main criterion for such delimitation is the primary relationship (immediacy) between employment function and creation of work. Establishing this primary relationship there must be considered the fact of the employer’s right to demand the concrete work from the employee according to the content of employment agreement. When the employers demand is obligatory, it means that the work is being created or was created performing the employment functions (duties) and the employer owns the economic author’s rights. It is stressed that existing legal regulation cannot solve all the problems arising in practice, accordingly it is recommended that the such copyright questions must be discussed and provided in the individual employment agreements, collective agreements or local legal acts of the company.
The third chapter of this article deals with the peculiarities of the execution of author’s rights which are transferred to employer: the economic rights of the author which are not transferred to employer are named (resale right, rental right); revealed the specifics which is determined by terminated transfer of copyright; described the specifics of the moral rights to the employee’s work.