What is a work in relation to copyright?

The copyright act does not give a definition of ‘work' but lists up examples. Jurisprudence however did develop a definition, basically coming down to the criteria that a work is supposed to have its own original character, derived from its makers personality.

This is a rather vague situation, but one could conclude from it that copyrights are only for the choices the maker made. Naturally, copyrights for a book, any book, are taken as granted, but recently the (obliged) enclosure for medicines was denied copyrights.

Depending on the nature of the work the demands for originality are different. Especially in the area of shaping products the demands are commonly high. Therefore it is often wise to apply for a design where the shape of a product is involved, in order to be certain of the protection required protection.

Although a databank contains only data, on which no copyright can exist, the databank itself does have copyrights, because always a selection has been made for the data which is and is not contained in the database.

Several copyrights can lay on one single work. A translated novel for instance, has copyrights from the writer, from the translator, the design of the cover, eventually the illustrator and possibly also the designer of the pages. All these persons have their own copyright on the same novel. Therefore it is rather common for copyright owners to assign the execution of their rights to an organisation which acts on their behalf. Often it is also possible to create other rights, alongside the copyrights, in order to be certain all rights are in one hand.

Quite often a logo is filed as a trademark even if copyrights lay on it. This serves to create clarity regarding the ownership of the copyright, in case of any infringement.