Copyright protection
Under copyright law, you as the author have the right to protect your creation, or your “work”. This copyrighted “work” is a broad and multi-faceted notion. This could concern texts, movies or photographs, but could also entail the (industrial) design of products, fashion, architecture or art. In addition, “digital works” such as websites, apps, interfaces and software can also be protected under copyright law. One condition for protection under copyright law is that the work is the result of creative choices and was not derived from another work.
As the copyright holder of a work, you have two exclusive rights: the exclusive right to publish the work and the exclusive right to reproduce the work. These rights do not merely offer protection against exact copies of your work. Even if a work has been reproduced or published in part or in an altered form, legal action can often be taken against such acts under copyright law.
Copyright protection arises automatically upon the creation of the work, so you don’t need to apply for or register anything. However, in order to rely on your copyright at a later date, it is important for you to be able to prove that you are the author of the work. We therefore recommend that you document how, when and by whom the work was created, and that you keep evidence for such (such as drafts, sketches and design drawings) and have them dated by an independent party. If you wish, Nysingh can provide you with further information on this matter.
