COPYRIGHT LAW
Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original
work, including the right to copy, distribute and adopt the work. These rights can be
licensed, transferred and/or assigned. Copyright lasts for a certain time period after
which the work is said to enter the public domain.
COMMISSIONED WORKS
As a general rule, copyright in a commissioned work belongs to the author, in the
absence of an express or implied term to the contrary. Where the contract is unclear as to
the rights of the Commissioner to use the work, the courts may imply the grant of an
appropriate right. And if the lacuna can be satisfied by the grant of a licence rather than
an assignment of the copyright, then the court will imply the former.
See: Intellectual Property Law by Jennifer Davis, Butterworths Core Text Series, at
p.97.
In the instant case, the parties failed to agree at the conferencing as to whether or not the
plaintiff was at the time of the said competition in the employment of the defendant. The
plaintiff has specifically denied being in the employment of the defendant at the material
time. Under Section 103 of the Evidence Act, the burden of proof as to any particular
fact lies on that person who wishes the court to believe in its existence. In the absence of
any evidence provided by the defendant that the plaintiff was at the material time its
employee, it (the defendant) has failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on it by
law. The plaintiff has in these circumstances proved on the balance of probabilities that
at the time of the competition he wasn‟t an employee of the defendant. Therefore,
himself and not the defendant owned the copyright at inception.
As to whether a contract was entered into by the parties in respect of the said
competition, I would note that a contract is a legally binding agreement. Every contract
involves an agreement but not every agreement amounts to a contract. The element
which converts an agreement into a legally enforceable contract is the intention of the
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