Intellectual Property Copyright

Intellectual Property Copyright Law: Understanding What Copyright Entails

Like other types of intellectual property, copyright aims to provide legal protection to people owning certain works, such as books, novels, poetry, plays, films, paintings, sheet music, computer programs, and the like. Although intellectual property copyright law initially applied only to the copying of novels or books, the law today covers a vast range of products or property that a person owns in the musical, artistic and literary fields.

Copyright provides the owner of the work with several benefits with regard to the use of their work. Copyright owners have the exclusive rights to control and exploit their work for commercial purposes. These rights allow them to reproduce, perform, publish, distribute and adapt their work.

What Does Copyright Protect?

Not all works are protected by copyright. However, as stated earlier this property law covers a wide range of subject matter, including published works, broadcasts, sound recordings, and cable programs. Specifically, copyright protects various works such as literary masterpieces, movies, video games, CD-ROMs, paintings, recorded music performances, software codes, architectural designs, sculptures, choreography and photographs.

It is important to remember though that intellectual property copyright law does not serve to protect ideas, but instead the expression or fixation of such ideas. Works that exist in a physical medium of expression are the ones that can be legally protected by copyright.

Moreover, qualifying for copyright protection necessitates originality. The creator or author of a certain work must not have copied from anyone else’s work, whether or not his actual work is similar to existing creations.

Duration of Copyright Protection

The term of protection that copyright offers varies depending on the type of work concerned. Based on Singapore’s intellectual property copyright law, literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works are still protected by copyright 70 years after the author died.

Copyrights for performances, films and sound recordings last for 70 years after the end of the year during which the work was used, while copyright law protection for broadcasts and cable programs lasts for 50 years after the year in which the owners made the broadcast or cable program.