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Fanworks and Copyright
Macáková, Michaela ; Petrlík, David (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
Fanworks and Copyright Abstract Fan works are works of authorship created by fans of a preexistent work from which they adopt characters, plots and worlds, and are distributed especially via the Internet. However, by doing so, the fan-author may infringe upon the copyright of the author of the preexistent work. The thesis Fanworks and Copyright introduces fanworks from a copyright perspective and starts a discussion whether current copyright statues are still appropriate in the era of massive growth of the Internet and online creative fan communities. Although it is not possible to state in general that fanworks infringe upon copyright, as there are multiple factors to take into account (what elements the author-fan adopts from the preexistent work, whether the author of the preexistent work has given consent for such use, whether the term of protection of the preexistent work has expired and whether there is a statutory exception), it can be stated that a large number of fanworks use copyrighted elements from preexistent works without the authors' consent, and since there is no exception in the Czech (and European) legislation that can be applied to fanworks, copyright is often being infringed upon. The complexity of the legislation and the legal uncertainty associated with its inconsistent application may...
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Comparison of patents and trade secrets as possible ways of protecting intellectual property rights
Roučková, Kateřina ; Petrlík, David (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
Comparison of patents and trade secrets as possible ways of protecting intellectual property rights Abstract The thesis Comparison of patents and trade secrets as possible ways of protecting intellectual property rights compares the institutes of patents and trade secrets and highlights their individual positives and negatives. It first addresses the question of whether both protection through patents and trade secrets can be alternatively applied to the same subject matter. Subsequently, since in the case of patents, the law specifies the subject matter which cannot benefit from such protection, it discusses whether or not it would be appropriate and possible to protect those particular subject matters through trade secrets. The thesis also compares the various defining features of the two institutes. The second part discusses the differences in the acquisition and disposition of patents and trade secrets, focusing on the process of obtaining patents, the scope of protection afforded by a given intellectual property right, and the ways in which these forms of protection are extinguished and revoked. This highlights the administrative and financial complexity that accompanies protection through patents as opposed to the informalized protection of trade secrets. In the last part of the thesis, the...
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The relationship between rights of designation and unfair competition law
Krása, Jakub ; Růžička, Michal (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
Relationship between rights of designation and unfair competition law Abstract This diploma thesis discusses the relationship between the rights of designation and the law of unfair competition. The main objective of the thesis is to acquaint its reader with the issue of both systems of protection and to answer the question of whether there is any relationship between them; if so, how to define the established relationship. The topic of this thesis is mainly processed from the perspective of the Czech legal order, but it is also complemented in appropriate cases with the connection to the foreign regulation of selected European states. This thesis is divided into three chapters, which are further divided into subchapters. In the first chapter, the author deals with the rights of designation. First, the group of rights of designation is placed within the system of intellectual property law. Subsequently, a list of specific rights that belong to this group is created, based on the described characteristics. However, the author also points to different opinions of legal theory regarding the content of the term rights of designation, which leads to distinction between the rights of designation in the strict and the broad sense. The following subchapters deal with the issue of trademarks, designations of origin...
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Inspiration and issues regarding creative continuity from a copyright law perspective
Taimr, Martin ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (advisor) ; Holcová, Irena (referee)
Inspiration and issues regarding creative continuity from a copyright law perspective Abstract An omnipresent element in the emergence of copyright-protected works is the inspiration by the creative work of previous authors and creative continuity with its results. Yet in which manner does copyright law deal with situations when the personal imprint of the author in the form of a work is not exclusively the imprint of the sole author? Problematic in fulfilling the goal of fostering creativity remains establishing the regulatory balance between protecting existing works and protecting the possibility of freely creating new works. The topic of this paper is an analysis of non-contractual flexibility which copyright law offers to authors building upon previous works, including an evaluation of the current regulation. At first, the terms inspiration and creative continuity are placed in a copyright law context and the areas which are key to enabling non-contractual flexibility are identified. The thesis is divided into two pivotal parts, which contain ten analytical sections. The first part deals with an analysis of the definition components of a copyright protected work, which represent the general limits of copyright protection. The aim of this part is to outline the differentiation between copyright...
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Protection of e-shops from the point of view of intellectual property law
Lokvenc, Dominik ; Holcová, Irena (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
This work aims to provide a basic and practical overview of the means of protection of e-shops from the point of view of intellectual property law so that every founder or operator of the e- shop, their representative or employee, or any other reader who is interested in this topic, can get acquainted with particular intellectual property institutes and their eventual application to a specific e-shop. The first part of this thesis explains the basic terminology concerning both intellectual property law and e-shops themselves. In addition, the first part also discusses the characteristics of e- shops as a means of e-commerce. The concept of the first part should thus facilitate the understanding of a more detailed analysis of individual intellectual property institutes across the remaining parts of the work. The second part discusses the protection of e-shops from the point of view of copyright. The possibilities of copyright protection of the e-shop as a whole, as well as its individual elements are described. Individual aspects are then assessed not only from the point of view of Czech legislation, but also from the point of view of European Union law, including possible consideration of German case law or US case law. The analysis of each e-shop element is then accompanied by a series of practical...
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Legal Protection of Cloud Computing
Župčanová, Jana ; Holcová, Irena (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to examine the areas of cloud computing that presuppose legal regulation and to describe the existing level of this regulation in the Czech Republic. I focus on the issue of copyright and I also deal with the question of whether it is necessary to overcome the common understanding of copyrighted works as unassignable among things in the sense of law. The attention is drawn to two European directives dealing with the provision of digital content, digital content services and the sale of goods with digital elements that lack transposition. Last but not least, I ask whether it is necessary to conclude a license agreement for the provision of software via cloud. I want to contribute with my thesis to raising the legal awareness of SaaS users and providers. At the same time, my work can help students and practicing lawyers interested in the legal regulation of this area. With the chapter on the amendment to the Civil Code I would also like to address the legislative authorities with a contribution to the current discussion on the legal qualification of data. When studying the topic, I relied primarily on the relevant Czech literature, books on the subject of copyright and IT law, annotated legislative acts, academic articles and relevant case law. Using the descriptive method,...
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Software piracy
Kubec, Vojtěch ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (advisor) ; Žikovská, Petra (referee)
IN ENGLISH The purpose of my thesis is to analyze phenomenon called software piracy. The thesis is composed of seven chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of issues related to the software piracy. Chapter One is introductory and defines term software. Chapter Two examines the software piracy. The chapter consists of seven parts. Part One focuses on basic definition. Part Two investigates software piracy in cyberspace. Part Three defines individual categories of software piracy and the reasons for them. Part Four explains and describes illegal software and illegal use of software. Part Five deals with restrictions on extent of rights of author to his software related to the legal license. Part Six is focused on sociocultural aspects of software piracy and impact of these aspects on the effectiveness of legal regulation. Last Part of this Chapter is dedicated to the public research on questions relevant to the software piracy. Chapter Three is subdivided into six parts and provides an outline of relevant legal regulations for protection of software. Part One contains basic demarcation. Next Parts are dealing with the protection of software with the relevant provisions of administrative law, business law and criminal law. Finally, it is also discussed on the patentability of software....
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A work produced by an employee, upon the order, and a collective work
Konečná, Miluše ; Císařová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (referee)
A work produced by an employee, upon the order and a collective work Shrnutí / summary This thesis deals with juridical institutes of works produced by an employee, works upon order and collective works. Such institutes are characterized by entitling other person than author to rights to the author's work. These persons contribution to creation of the work rest on a noncreative investment into the development of original work - examples of such entities are employer or order party. Czech author's law belongs to civil law system of author's rights, which recognizes the natural person that created the work as the author. However, the protection of other person's private interests besides the authors' is strongly influenced by copyright system, which is characteristic for Anglo-American legal system. This thesis handles the Czech legal institutes in detail. Since the three institutes are interconnected they are dealt with the historical and comparative perspective. Furthermore, the approach of the Czech institutes is compared to analogous legal approaches of foreign countries. Employee's work is created by an employee within the scope of employment or similar relationship. The employee is the author of the work, and both moral and economic rights are vested in the author. However, the employer executes the...
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Software piracy
Metelec, Karel ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (advisor) ; Císařová, Zuzana (referee)
69 Software Piracy As this thesis suggests, it is possible to only speculate about further development in the sphere of software piracy. While in the past households were proud of Internet access whose connectivity hardly exceeded 56kbps, information technology now develops at an incredible pace and organisations such as BSA can hardly measure up with it. Nowadays, downloading files via the Internet is quite an easy job for any average user and in my opinion it is beyond the capacity of any organisation to call on all these Internet users and frighten them, or to conduct with them expensive legal proceedings with uncertain and vague results. In my thesis I try to explain that the result of efforts in this respect should be, above all, co-operation amongst the relevant organisations, the government, software piracy specialists and software producers and that all these stakeholders should in particular focus on public education, trying to explain the basics of this problem, and on psychological prevention. As the use of the Internet expands, so does software piracy. It is better to change this situation by precise legislative provisions, on which the authors will be able to rely firmly, rather than by repression. This thesis is not intended to bring any fundamentally new view of copyright or a new view of the...
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Legal regulation of franchising with respect to intellectual property protection aspects
Michalcová, Lenka ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (advisor) ; Žikovská, Petra (referee)
Legal regulation of franchising with respect to intellectual property protection aspects The aim of the submitted thesis is to analyse the phenomenon of franchising as an instrument of commercialisation of intellectual property rights, assessment of the importance of these rights to existence and functioning of the system, instruments of its protection as well as the dynamics of the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisees in relation to these rights. The work consists of four topical sections. The first one is focused on franchising in general terms. It emphasises the internal differentiation of the phenomenon and presents the basic types of franchise systems, we might come across. Subsequently it strives for theoretical definition of the term by means of comparison. The second section of the work is devoted to the term of intellectual property. This chapter is introduced by a brief classification of the rights subordinated to the term which is followed by a discussion on significance of these rights to franchise systems. Subsequently is the focal point moved to the issues of trademark law and know-how protection, which are, in my opinion, from the franchising standpoint crucial. The third section of the work deals with trademarks, without aspiring on comprehensiveness of the...
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