Copyright | Colombian Copyright Office Issues Its First Judicial Judgment

On August 19 2016, the Colombian Copyright Office (CCO) issued its first judgment in exercise of its judicial powers. The CCO resolved a lawsuit filed by Gabriel Antonio Calle Arango, an artist which considered that the San Diego Mall in Medellin violated his moral right of integrity with the destruction of an artistic wall of its authorship.

The case shows a coalition between material property rights and moral intellectual property rights regarding the work. The CCO considered that the artist' rights should prevail and granted a compensation in his favor as a victim of extrapatrimonial damages.

CCO's judicial powers where given by the new Colombian procedure law (1564 of 2012), which gave the same powers to the Colombian Patent and Trademark Office.