Intellectual Property - Copyright - Who has a copyright

An author of an original work has the copyright to his work. However, only a human being can create something that can be protected by copyright, and therefore for example companies can only have a derived copyright, i.e. an assigned copyright.

The copyright protection begins when the work is created. Copyright does not require any registration, nor does it require any announcement of an intention to keep a copyright to created work. Sketches of a work are also protected by copyright, if they are considered unique.

If several persons create a work so that their individual efforts can not be defined, they all have the copyright jontly and can only, for example, assign it to a third party only if all parties agree thereto. If a work consists of several separate works the original authors of the separate works all have copyright to their own work.