What is a copyright?
Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films to computer programmes, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. Copyright protection is obtained automatically without the need for registration or other formalities. Many countries, including the UAE, nonetheless have a system in place to allow for the voluntary registration of intellectual works.
Copyright protection extends only to expressions, and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Copyright may not be available for a number of objects such as titles, slogans, or logos, depending on whether they contain sufficient authorship.
Who is the copyright's owner?
Usually, the creator of a work owns the copyright to, except if:
They created the work as part of their job; it then belongs to their employer.
The work was commissioned; it then belongs to the buyer.
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The creator has sold or transferred the ownership; the recipient then becomes the owner.
The copyright owner is allowed to reproduce, market, perform, and adapt the copyrighted work.
Copyright law in the UAE
According to the UAE Federal Law No. 38 of 2021 on Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, an intellectual work is any original work in the areas of literature, arts, or science, whatever its description, form of expression, significance, or purpose. In accordance with Article 2, the authors of intellectual work shall be protected if their rights are violated in the UAE.
The following intellectual works are protected under copyright law:
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Books, booklets, articles, and other literature.
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Computer software and applications, databases, and similar works defined in a decision to be issued by the Minister of Economy.
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Lectures, speeches, sermons, and other works of similar nature.
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Plays, musicals, and pantomimes.
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Plays, musicals, and pantomimes.
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Musicals accompanied by dialogues and musicals not accompanied by dialogue.
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Audio and video works or audio-visual works.
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Architectural works and architectural plans and drawings.
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Drawings, paintings, sculptures, etchings, lithography, screen printing, reliefs and intaglio prints, and other similar works of fine art.
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Photographic work and the likes
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Works of applied art and plastic art.
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Charts, maps, plans, 3D modelling for geographical and topographical applications and architectural designs, etc.
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Derivative works, subject to the protection afforded to the work(s) upon which they are based. The protection shall extend to the title of the work, if created, as well as the creative concept devised for broadcast material.
Why does copyright registration matter?
Copyright gives you the right to authorise or prevent specific uses of your creative work, and to receive compensation for its use. You can control reproduction in various forms, such as printed publication, recording, public performance, broadcasting, translation into other languages, and adaptation, turning a novel into a film screenplay for example.
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