Principles of Copyright Law – Cases and Materials

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III. OWNERSHIP OF RIGHTS

himself and Devil take the hindmost.” Consistently with that ethos, any co-author may exploit

the plan to her own advantage without the consent of any other, let alone a majority, of her co-

authors. If, however, the group credo runs closer to the Three Musketeers’ — “one for all and all

for one” — the result would be different. Conceivably, all, or at least a majority, of the group

would have to concur in the exploitation of the plan.

D. TRANSFER AND LICENSING OF RIGHTS

Economic rights are in most jurisdictions capable of transfer (assignment or

cession). The rights may also be licensed exclusively or non-exclusively.

1. ASSIGNMENTS ARE DISTINGUISHED FROM LICENCES

The following passage provides an overview of the distinction between

assignments and licences, and the various categories of assignments and

licences:

D. Vaver, Copyright Law(2000), pp. 228, 234-5, 238-9:

Copyright has been deliberately organized to facilitate a free national and international market

in rights. So, a copyright can be bought and sold separately or in combination with other

intellectual property rights. It can be split up horizontally and vertically — by territory, time,

market, and so on — and dealt with accordingly. ... The right-holder may also transfer or license

some rights while retaining others. So the copyright owner of a poem may assign the German

translation right for Germany [and] may license the dramatization right for ten years to someone

else, ... while retaining all other rights. ...

Partial assignments

An assignment or licence need not grant the whole copyright. For example, A, the copyright

owner of a musical work, can do all or any of the following:

• assign the right to reproduce the work in sheet music in Europe to Bforever;


• assign the right to make a sound recording of the work in Europe and Australasia to Cfor ten
  years, while reserving the power, at A’s option, to terminate the assignment earlier and revert all
  rights to Aif Cbreaks any obligation owed to A;


• grant an exclusive licence to reproduce a sheet music version on slides for the educational
  market in Quebec to Dfor fifty years.

In these examples, Band Care each partial assignees. They own their slice of the copyright for

the stated period and can sue anyone who infringes it. Dis an exclusive partial licensee, who can

also sue infringers but usually must join Ain the litigation. Aowns only those parts of the

copyright he has not assigned. He no longer owns the parts assigned to Band Cand cannot sue

anyone who now infringes them. Astill owns the rights that he licensed to Dand can sue for

infringement, although he must usually join Din the litigation.

Licences

An assignment changes ownership in the right from assignor to assignee. By contrast, a licence

is just a consent, permission, or clearance (the terms are all interchangeable) to use intellectual