Intellectual property and ‚sticky‘ rights

Copyright, right of use, exploitation right, author, translator and the required level of originality. It's tricky to keep on top of it all. Therefore it is time to have a closer look at the facts and create some clarity.

From the ‚Statute of Anne‘ to the copyright law

The first modern copyright law dates back to 1710, the ‘Statute of Anne’. Since the invention of letter press printing, it stated the entitlement of an author to his text creations for the first time. Even though, in many cases this remained quite unclear in it's early version.
By now the Copyright Act (UrhG in German) which was legislated in 1965 and which was often amended afterwards, clearly regulated the right of use and exploitation of some texts. It’s a safe-guard for written works as well as music, architecture, movies and other forms of art. As soon as a certain level of originality has been reached, the so called ‘perceptible design’ which indicates it is a creation ‘substantiated so far beyond an idea that it can be perceived by human senses’ and if it is a ‘personal intellectual creation’ a text is a linguistic work and therefore secured by law as such.

Translators are authors too

Everything that happens to a linguistic work needs the approval from the author. It also means that the one who created the text has to give the permission for the translation of his work. (Scientific and technical texts are treated differently. Scientific teachings do not fall under copyright law, only the way a text is presented for example its structure and design.)

If a permitted translation has been created, the translator's version is also protected under copyright law. He can insist on his name being mentioned in connection with the translation and he has to approve, together with the originator of the text, any exploitation of the text.

To whom belongs the Memory?

To clarify the exploitation rights it’s often said the rights ‘stick’ with the creator. Any kind of right on how to use a text that one wants to acquire has to be explicitly mentioned and any admission for instance, the inclusion into TM data bases is interpreted rigidly.

Translation services therefore do not belong automatically to the contractor and sponsor. Thus there is no automatic claim to the TM-data of a translation service provider as well as there is no global extension to any agreements concluded in Germany.
This implies the necessity to regulate the exploitation and the usage rights with a contract beforehand to avoid misinterpretations and later conflicts.

Source (for the german text) as well as further information:
Berger, Ulrike: "Urheberrecht, Nutzungsrecht, Verwertungsrecht, Leistungsschutzrecht.
Was schützen – und wie?", in: Fachzeitschrift MDÜ Ausgabe 2014-3