Register copyright in Vietnam for photographic works

In today’s technological age, many images are easily plagiarized and copied with bad intentions. Registering copyright for photographic works is necessary but is a difficult problem that many clients have been encountering. To answer questions from clients, Viet An Law published an article about copyright registration for the photo work below.

Legal basis

• Law on Intellectual Property 2005, as amended and supplemented 2009, 2019, 2022.

• Decree 17/2023/ND-CP guiding the Intellectual Property Law on copyright and related rights.

Copyright registration regime in Vietnam

Copyright registration is understood as an administrative procedure conducted by the author or owner of the work submitting copyright registration documents to the registration agency to record intellectual property rights for the registered work. sign. When the Copyright Office issues a registration certificate, the author and owner of the work will have the exclusive right to use the registered work in the territory of Vietnam.

According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 6 of the Intellectual Property Law, copyright registration is not mandatory. Immediately after completing the work and the work is expressed in a certain form, copyright will still arise from that time even though copyright registration procedures have not yet been carried out.

According to the provisions of international treaties in general and Vietnamese law in particular, the creator of a photographic work is the subject of copyright protection.

Conditions for protecting photographic works

Firstly, the work must be directly created by the author and not copied from another person’s work;

Second, conditions on legal entities:

• Being a Vietnamese organization or individual;
• Foreign individuals and organizations whose works are published for the first time in Vietnam but have not been published in any other country or are published simultaneously in Vietnam within 30 days from the date that work is published. published for the first time in another country;
• Foreign individuals and organizations whose works are protected in Vietnam according to international copyright treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

Why should you register a copyright in Vietnam for photographic works?

Registering a copyright for photographic works will bring the following benefits:

• Firstly, after being granted a registration certificate by the Copyright Office, the owner and author of the work will have the exclusive right to use the work in Vietnam. Any use of a work without the owner’s permission will be considered an infringement of copyright to the work. Accordingly, registration will help the author legally own his or her photographic work, serving as a legal basis in case of dispute or infringement of the rights of a third party.
• Second, works are often protected for quite a long time, and can even be protected even after the author has passed away.
• Third, the owner not only has property rights but also moral rights such as naming the work, using real names or pseudonyms for publication, publishing it himself, or allowing others to publish it.

Procedure for registering copyright for photographic works

Procedures for registering copyright for photographic works include the following steps:

Step 1: Prepare documents to register a copyright for photographic works

After completing the work, the owner and author proceed to draft the copyright registration dossier for the photographic work according to the provisions of the law. It prepares documents to establish the owner’s legal ownership rights and the actual creation process of the work.

Step 2: Submit a copyright registration application for the photo work

Application submission methods include the following :

• Submit directly to Copyright Offices.
• Submit by mail to the Copyright Office.
• Submit online at the Online Public Service Portal.

Authors, copyright owners, and related rights owners can directly or authorize other organizations or individuals to submit a copyright registration application at the Copyright Office headquarters in Hanoi. Clients in the Southern and Central provinces, when needed, can register at the Copyright Office offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

Copyright registration documents can be submitted directly or by post to one of the three addresses mentioned above. However, to avoid unnecessary problems and in case of conditions, the applicant should still submit the copyright registration application directly to the above agencies.

Step 3: Evaluate the registration dossier and issue a copyright certificate for the photographic work

After receiving the registration dossier, the Copyright Office will review and appraise the dossier and will make decisions corresponding to the following cases:

• Within 15 working days from the date of receipt of the submitted application and valid acceptance by the Copyright Office, the Copyright Office shall issue a Copyright Registration Certificate to the applicant.
• In case the dossier is missing or has errors and needs to be supplemented or adjusted, the Copyright Office will notify the applicant so they can make adjustments. Within the prescribed time, if an individual or organization does not make any changes or additions or has made additional modifications and the file is still invalid, the Copyright Office has the right to return the file to the submitter. file.
• In case the Copyright Office refuses to issue a copyright registration license for a photographic work, the Copyright Office must notify the applicant in writing.

Note: Clients can shorten the time to consider granting a Copyright Registration Certificate for photographic works to 7 – 10 days when clients use consulting services and a representative applies for registration of Viet An Law Firm.

Dossier registration for photographic works

Copyright registration documents for photographic works include:

• Copyright registration declaration according to the prescribed form.
• Copy of copyright registration for photographic works (02 copies): 02 copies printed on A4 paper with signature or stamp of the author and owner.
• Documents proving rights owner:
• Power of attorney for Viet An Law to carry out procedures.
• Written consent of the co-authors in case the work has co-authors.
• Written consent of the co-owners in case the copyright of the photographic work is jointly owned.

Note: The declaration must clearly state the name of the work, type of work, date of completion of the work, a summary of the main content of the work, works registered as derivative works, time, and location. form of announcement and commitment of the person making the declaration regarding the accuracy of the information recorded in the declaration.

Some questions related to registering copyright in Vietnam for photographic works

Is the copyright registration declaration written in English?

copyright registration declaration must be written in Vietnamese and must contain all information about the applicant, author, copyright owner, or related owner.

How long does it take to issue a copyright registration certificate for photographic works?

According to current legal regulations, within fifteen (15) working days from the date of receipt of valid documents, the state management agency on copyright is responsible for issuing the Copyright Registration Certificate. false to the applicant. In case of refusal to issue a Copyright Registration Certificate, the state management agency for copyright must notify the applicant in writing and clearly state the reason.

How much is the copyright registration fee?

The registration fee is a fee that the author and owner of the work will have to pay to the registration agency ( Copyright Office ) and depending on the type of work, there will be different ways of calculating the fee.

Article 4 of Circular 211/2016/TT-BTC stipulates the fees for photographic works as follows: The cost for copyright registration is 100,000 VND applicable to photographic works.

Clients who need advice on the procedure to register copyright in Vietnam for photographic works, please contact Viet An Company for the best support.