How do I copyright a website?

Copyright protects original works of authorship, including the text, graphics, photographs, sound recordings and audiovisual elements of websites and their underlying computer programs. To be copyrightable, website material must meet two criteria:

1.It must be an original work of authorship. It must originate with the copyright owner and show some minimal amount of creativity. You cannot copyright a domain name or the title of a website.

2.It must be fixed in some sort of tangible medium that allows it to be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated. This includes computers and digital media. You cannot copyright ideas, procedures, systems or methods of operation.

Who Owns the Copyright to Your Website?

A website is often a compilation of things – text, graphics, photographs, video and computer programs – created by several people. You only own the copyright to the parts of a website that you created, unless copyrights to the other parts have been transferred to you.

Copyright Enforcement Law Firm in Vietnam

If the website was created by your employees as part of their regular job, you will own the copyright.

If you hire someone to create a website for your business, the person you hired owns the copyright to whatever they created. If you want to own the copyright to all of the copyrightable portions of your business website, you will need work for hire agreements or agreements transferring the copyrightable content to you. An attorney can assist you with this.

Similarly, if you are a website designer, you own the copyright to the copyrightable portions of your designs and content, unless you have signed a written agreement transferring those rights to someone else.

Why Should You Register a Copyright?

There are several advantages to registering your copyright with the Vietnam Copyright Office. These advantages include:

Registration serves as a public record of your copyright ownership.

You cannot sue someone for copyright infringement unless you have registered your copyright.

If you register your copyright within three months of publication or before an infringement occurs, you can recover statutory damages and attorney fees if you win a copyright infringement lawsuit. Statutory damages are awarded for each work infringed and do not require you to prove your monetary loss or the infringer’s gain.

Special Rules for Website Copyright Registration

A copyright registration only covers the copyrightable elements of your website that you identify and submit to the copyright office as part of your registration.

Updates to websites must be registered separately unless they fall within limited exceptions for automatic updates and serials. Details about these exceptions can be found on the copyright office website.

If you developed a computer program, such as an html program, that establishes the format of text and graphics when a website is viewed on a computer screen, you can register a copyright in the computer program, but the registration will not cover the content of the website. 

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Measures to Prevent and Ensure Administrative Sanctions of Software Piracy

Vietnam is among countries with the highest rate of software piracy in the world, although the rate has reduced from 92% in 2004, to 81% in 2011, 78% in 2015 according to the report of BSA, The Software Alliance that promote legal software use and advocates for public policies that foster technology innovation and drive growth in the digital economy.

 

Copyright Enforcement Law Firm in Vietnam

Computer software is protected as literary works, one of types of works eligible for copyright protection in accordance with Article 14 of Vietnam law on intellectual property 2005, amended and supplemented in 2009. Unlicensed software is unauthorized use or distribution of copyrighted software.  Copyright infringements include publishing, distributing, copying, using, leasing out, duplicating, importing, exporting a work without permission from the author or copyright holder according to Article 28 of Vietnam law on intellectual property 2005, amended and supplemented in 2009.

The government of Vietnam has been striving to coordinate between ministries to increase awareness and encourage the software license compliance. Further, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with Ministry of Public Security to increase frequency of inspecting the software license compliance in Vietnam as part of intellectual property right enforcement effort.

According to the provisions of Article 215 of the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, there are measures under the law of Vietnam to prevent and secure administrative sanctions.

In the following cases, organizations and individuals may request Vietnam competent agencies to apply preventive measures and ensure administrative sanction as provided for in Clause 2, Article 215 of the 2005 Intellectual Property Law:

-An act of infringement of intellectual property rights is likely to cause serious loss and damage to consumers or society;

-Material evidence of the infringement is likely to be dispersed or there are indications that the offender will evade responsibility;

In order to secure enforcement of a decision imposing an administrative penalty, preventive measures and/or measures to secure enforcement of administrative penalties which may be applied in accordance with administrative procedures to acts of infringement of intellectual property rights shall comprise:

-Temporary detention of persons;

-Temporary custody of infringing goods, material evidence and facilities;

-Body searches;

-Searches of means of transport and objects; searches of places where infringing goods, material evidence and facilities are hidden;

-Other administrative preventive measures in accordance with the law on dealing with administrative breaches

If you are looking for an experienced IP services in Vietnam to help you with your IP application, you should visit ANTLawyers.vn. Our attorneys have experience with the IP process and will work closely with you as you apply for your IP.

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