Intellectual property law
Intellectual property is a set of special rights, protected by law, over the results of a person’s creative activity. It has two big parts: copyright (works of science, literature and art, computer programs) and industrial property (inventions, trademarks and the like). Internationally these rights are coordinated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), set up under a convention of 1967. Copyright arises by itself at the moment a work is created, and no registration is required; sometimes the © sign, the author’s name and a year are added as a notice. Personal non-property rights (recognition as author, name, integrity of the work) stay with the author, while property rights (publication, distribution, rental) may be transferred to others by contract. Objects not protected include official documents (the text of a law, a court decision), state symbols, folklore, news of the day and plain facts. An authorship contract is written between the author and a publisher or user: it states the way, territory and term of use, the fee and the parties’ responsibility. One of the main international instruments on copyright is the Bern Convention. In Uzbekistan, under the Law “On Copyright and Related Rights”, property rights last for the author’s whole life and 50 years after death; after that anyone may use the work freely, but the author’s name must be given and the work must not be distorted.
Mini-research: each student lists which creative products (book, song, programme, picture) are used at home and discusses in a group which are protected and which are not. No real person is accused; the focus is on general rules.