US Copyright Recordation of Stan Lee Media's Rights to Spider Man, X-Men et al

http://www.stanleemedia.net-a.googlepages.com/stanleemediacontractrecordation
Joint Ownership of Rights
The U.S. Copyright Office considers joint copyright owners to have an equal right to register and
enforce the copyright. Unless the joint owners make a written agreement to the contrary, each
copyright owner has the right to commercially exploit the copyright, provided that the other
copyright owners get an equal share of the proceeds.
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Foreign Law: When the copyright in a work is jointly owned, each joint owner can use or
license the work in the United States without the consent of the other owner, provided
that the use does not destroy the value of the work and the parties do not have an
agreement requiring the consent of each owner for use or licensing. A joint owner who
licenses a work must share any royalties he or she receives with the other owners.

Many foreign countries (Germany and France, for example) require that all joint owners consent
to the grant of a license. Generally, joint ownership is not recommended because of the complications
it adds to licensing worldwide rights.

Copyright Law

A Copyright under WIPO

When a person creates a literary work, he or she is the owner of that work and is free to decide on its
use. That person (called the "creator" or the "author" or "owner of rights") can control the destiny of the
work. Since, by law, the work is protected by copyright from the moment it comes into being, there is
no formality to be complied with, such as registration or deposit, as a condition of that protection.
Copyright is the legal protection extended to the owner of the rights in an original
work that he has created. It comprises two main sets of rights: the economic rights
and the moral rights.

The economic rights are the rights of reproduction, broadcasting, public performance, adaptation,
translation, public recitation, public display, distribution, and so on. The moral rights include the
author's right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of his work that might be
prejudicial to his honor or reputation.
Both sets of rights belong to the creator who can exercise them.(Co-Creatorscan each
exercise these rights independently so long as accountings are made to the
other creator) The exercise of rights means that he can use the work himself, can give
permission to someone else to use the work or can prohibit someone else from using the work.
The general principle is that copyright protected works cannot be used without the authorization
of the owner of rights. In principle, the term of protection is the creator's lifetime and a
minimum of 50 years after his death.
These legal aspects are specified in international conventions to which most countries are now party.
On their accession, member States should have national legislation that are in line with the international
standards.
At the international level, the economic and moral rights are conferred by the Berne Convention for
the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, commonly known as the "Berne Convention". This
Convention, which was adopted in 1886, has been revised several times to take into account the impact
of new technology on the level of protection that it provides. It is administered by the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), one of the specialized international agencies of the United
Nations system.
There are other specific brochures on copyright, related rights and the WCT and WPPT treaties; they
are obtainable from WIPO on request. For more information on collective management, the reader
should approach the Copyright Collective Management Division at WIPO on +41-22 338 91 43
(Secretariat), or visit the WIPO website, www.wipo.int.
For general information contact
WIPO
34 chemin des Colombettes
1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
tel. +41-22 338 91 11

Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works1
of September 9, 1886,
completed at PARIS on May 4, 1896,
revised at BERLIN on November 13, 1908,
completed at BERNE on March 20, 1914,
revised at ROME on June 2, 1928,
at BRUSSELS on June 26, 1948,
at STOCKHOLM on July 14, 1967,
and at PARIS on July 24, 1971,
and amended on September 28, 1979

Article 2
Protected Works:
1. “Literary and artistic works”; 2. Possible requirement of fixation; 3. Derivative works;
4. Official texts; 5. Collections; 6. Obligation to protect; beneficiaries of protection;
7. Works of applied art and industrial designs; 8. News
(1) The expression “literary and artistic works” shall include every production in the literary, domain,
whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamphlets and other writings;
lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature; works of drawing, painting,
architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography;works of applied art; illustrations, sketches
(6) The works mentioned in this Article shall enjoy protection in all countries of the Union. This
protection shall operate for the benefit of the author and his successors in title.

Article 7
Term of Protection:
1. Generally; 2. For cinematographic works; 3. For anonymous and pseudonymous works;
4. For photographic works and works of applied art; 5. Starting date of computation;
6. Longer terms; 7. Shorter terms; 8. Applicable law; “comparison” of terms

(1) The term of protection granted by this Convention shall be the life of the author and fifty years after
his death.

Article 7bis
Term of Protection for Works of Joint Authorship

The provisions of the preceding Article shall also apply in the case of a work of joint authorship,
provided that the terms measured from the death of the author shall be calculated from the death of the
last surviving author.

JOINT OWNERSHIP OF RIGHTS

the Copyright Act provides for joint authorship when

a work is prepared by more than one author
"with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or
interdependent parts of a unitary whole". If joint authorship exists, the authors of the
"joint work" will be recognized as the co-owners of the copyright in that work.

The Importance of Joint Authorship to the Publisher

Co-authorship and collaboration are commonplace in the publishing industry. Examples of co-authorship and
collaboration may include a co-writer, an illustrator, a ghostwriter, a book packager, or a work that includes
copyrighted materials owned by another author or artist. When co-authorship or collaboration occurs a number
of critical questions and issues arise. These include: Who is the author(s) of the work in the form in which
the work will be published? Who is the owner(s) of the copyright in the work? Who makes the decision
on when, where and how to publish the work? Who receives payment or royalties for the work? The most
appropriate time to resolve these matters is in a written agreement or agreements prior to commencement of
work on the project.

One situation that may arise, where the publisher may not be the sole author of the work, is when the work is
commissioned by the publisher as a work made for hire, but the publisher fails to satisfy the
requirements of the work made for hire doctrine. If this occurs, unless the publisher has obtained, in a
written agreement between the publisher and author, a grant of rights - including copyright ownership -
to the work, the rights in the work would be owned exclusively by the author. The publisher, in order to
prevent the loss of all its rights in the work, would have to prove that the work qualifies as a joint work
and that the publisher was a co-author of the work. The publisher could prove that it was a co-
author if the publisher acted as a collaborator in the work. One example of such a collaboration
would be when an employee of the publisher or a freelancer hired by the publisher added
copyrightable materials to the work made for hire; such as illustrations prepared by a staff
artist within the scope of the artist's employment or by a freelance artist who prepared the
artwork as a work made for hire that satisfied the requirements of the Copyright Act or by copyright
assignment by the freelance artist to the publisher.

Another situation where joint authorship could arise is if the work is created in its entirety by employees
of the publisher, but where a portion of the work was not created within the scope of an employee's job;
an example of this could be where an editor was asked to write materials for inclusion in the work,
and/or where the work was created outside the employee's normal work day and possibly at a location
other than the place of employment, such as in the evening and/or on weekends at home. Under this
scenario the employee could claim that he/she was a co-author of the work. If the employee is
successful in this attempt to acquire joint authorship the employee would be recognized as a co-author
of the work.

The Rights and Duties of a Co-Author

If the work qualifies under the law of copyright as a work of joint authorship the co-authors or collaborators may
allocate the rights and duties of the work of authorship among themselves. However, since no formal
agreement is required between the co-authors or collaborators a legal relationship of
joint authorship may occur even without the intent of the respective authors to create a
work of joint authorship. Therefore, if no joint authorship agreement has been
formalized it will be presumed that the following principles shall apply.
1. Each co-author will own an equal ownership share in the work. This will occur even if one of the
co-authors has contributed a greater quantity of the work than the other co-authors.
2. Each co-author will own an "undivided" interest in the entire work. This means that if the publishing
project consists of illustrations and text that the artist and the writer will each own fifty percent of the
entire work, i.e., the art and the text.
3. Any co-author, without the permission of their fellow co-authors, may grant non-exclusive rights
to the work to third parties. However, a co-author may only grant exclusive rights to the work to
third parties if the co-author obtains the prior consent of the other co-authors.
4. Each co-author has a duty to account to the other co-authors for any profits obtained from the
exploitation of the work.
5. A co-author has the right to assign his/her ownership share in the work to a third party or to
bequeath his/her ownership share to his/her heirs.
6. Each co-author will be entitled to equal authorship credit for the work upon its publication.

Guide on employees' creations

Trade mark rights:

To obtain trade mark protection, a sign must be registered. The trade mark holder is the individual or
corporation on behalf of whom/which the registration is made.
At first glance, the question of distribution of rights between employer and employee does not appear
relevant.
However, problems may occur while considering the validity of the trademark. Indeed, a sign must be
"available" (not subject to any third party's right) to be lawfully registered as a trademark.
This means, for instance, that and employee’s copyright for an original logo must be transferred to the
employer to allow the registration of the logo as its trade mark (see the copyright sections).
In common law countries, registered trade marks may co-exist with unregistered trade marks or trade
names (common law trade marks, trade names protected under unfair competition law in civil law
countries), which benefit from legal protection based solely on the fact that they are used in connection
with the sale of goods or services. The right holder in these particular trade marks is the person who
can prove the first use of the sign as a trade mark. This use must, however, not infringe a third parties'
rights (notably the copyright of the employee who created the logo). 2.2 The legal relationship between
joint owners

The legal relationship between the joint owners is typically governed by the general rules pertaining to
shared property and legal majorities.

a) In Continental laws

Under German law, and possibly most continental laws, the effect of Joint Ownership is, in the
absence of any agreement to the contrary, to create a legal entity sharing undivided interests in
the intellectual property right - i.e. each party holds a nominal equal share, divided simply per
head (Bruchteilsgemeinschaft). Such result is not desirable as it is fraught with difficulties.

The main principles are:

• Each joint owner can assign his interest to a third party, this party will then replace the
former joint owner with respect to the interest.
• Any dealing in the work is subject to consent.
• In the case of one parties' death his interest will pass to the others.
• In the case of the insolvency of one joint owner, his interest can be transferred to creditors.
A joint work is a work prepared by two or more individuals, with the intention that their separate
contributions be merged into a single work. A joint author can also be an organization or a corporation
under the work made for hire doctrine.
Absent an agreement to the contrary, authors own the work jointly and equally. Each joint author,
therefore, has the right to exercise any or all of the exclusive rights inherent in the joint work.
(For more information on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, see What is copyright?
from the Office of Technology Transfer.) This means that each author can grant third parties
permission to use the work on a nonexclusive basis without the consent of other joint authors.
Each author may also transfer his or her entire ownership interest to another person without the
other joint authors' consent. Each author may also update the work for his or her own purposes.
Additionally, each joint author has a duty to account to the other joint authors for any profits received
from licensing the joint work.
For a number of reasons collaborators should try to clarify joint ownership interests in a written (or
even an oral) agreement -- clarifying such issues as ownership and use issues, rights to revise the
works, marketing and sharing of any revenue, and warranties against copyright infringement. At UC
the ownership of joint works is determined by assessing the category of work for each of the
contributors as defined in Section V of the Policy on Copyright Ownership.
When two or more people collaborate to create a single copyrighted work, the duration of the copyright
is the lifetime of the last living author plus 70 years. If one of the joint authors is an organization, e.g.,
the University of California, the copyright would last 95 years from publication or 120 years after
creation, whichever comes first.
Transfer of copyright to publishers
Copyrights can be bought, sold, willed to others, or given away. A transfer of the copyright or an
exclusive grant or license to use the work is a transaction that must be conveyed in writing.