Author(s) Diana Filipa Guimarães Fidalgo Roque
Advisor(s) Luís Couto Gonçalves
Year 2015
Synopsis Given the vast amount of products offered on the market, design is of great relevance, frequently being the determinant factor in consumer choice. Because aesthetic is so important, it becomes quite understandable why producers choose to increasingly invest in this aspect which simultaneously, by the novelty and singularity of a design, ends up creating works of art. In a situation where design coalesces with art, there is the creation of a rather complex situation in regards to its protection guaranteed by law, making it so that one has to face two different branches of law that each have a different basis in logic: Copyright Law and Industrial Property Law. Even though both have their origin in Intellectual Property Law, which intends to secure the protection of certain creations and its creators, it is not rare that they end up providing conflicting solutions, leaving a ticking time bomb in the hands of those who apply the law. Design is frequently created in the context of a labour contract, and for that reason, an already complex situation becomes even more complex. What we propose to do in this study is to find a solution to the problem that the lawmaker has no answer for: What to do when design is protected by both Copyright and Industrial Property Law. We will point out the discrepancies between Copyright and Industrial Property Law in Portuguese legislation by analysing both regimes and their implications in labour contracts. Given how complex the matter is in Portuguese Law, we have opted to not go into depth into the law of other countries and EU law, considering foreign law only to find solutions to this existing problem.
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Author(s) Diana Filipa Guimarães Fidalgo Roque
Advisor(s) Luís Couto Gonçalves
Year 2015
Synopsis Given the vast amount of products offered on the market, design is of great relevance, frequently being the determinant factor in consumer choice. Because aesthetic is so important, it becomes quite understandable why producers choose to increasingly invest in this aspect which simultaneously, by the novelty and singularity of a design, ends up creating works of art. In a situation where design coalesces with art, there is the creation of a rather complex situation in regards to its protection guaranteed by law, making it so that one has to face two different branches of law that each have a different basis in logic: Copyright Law and Industrial Property Law. Even though both have their origin in Intellectual Property Law, which intends to secure the protection of certain creations and its creators, it is not rare that they end up providing conflicting solutions, leaving a ticking time bomb in the hands of those who apply the law. Design is frequently created in the context of a labour contract, and for that reason, an already complex situation becomes even more complex. What we propose to do in this study is to find a solution to the problem that the lawmaker has no answer for: What to do when design is protected by both Copyright and Industrial Property Law. We will point out the discrepancies between Copyright and Industrial Property Law in Portuguese legislation by analysing both regimes and their implications in labour contracts. Given how complex the matter is in Portuguese Law, we have opted to not go into depth into the law of other countries and EU law, considering foreign law only to find solutions to this existing problem.
See more here.