Comparative analysis regarding peculiarities of inheritance of property and personal non-property copyrights of Ukraine and UE countries

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of the transfer of copyrights through inheritance. The authors point out the importance of intellectual property as a driving factor in the economic, political, and scientific spheres of a democratic society. One of the legal ways of acquiring intellectual property rights is inheritance. It is emphasized that there are differences in the inheritance of intellectual property objects caused by their features as part of the hereditary property, particularly by a special legal regime of use. The legally enshrined definitions of the concepts of “intellectual property”, “inheritance”, and “copyright” are revealed. The article examines the general characteristics of all intellectual property rights, including their territorial nature and national legal protection by the state where they were created or registered. Finally, some concepts of succession by the author’s heirs are distinguished. In most cases, not the work itself in its objective expression is inherited, but the totality of copyrights to it. The copyrights are divided into property and personal non-property ones. Analyzing the standards of the national legislation and the legislation of the European Union countries, the peculiarities of the inheritance of copyrights have been singled out; their categories that can be part of the inheritance are investigated. Considering these categories’ complex and interconnected nature, it is underlined that the inheritance of exclusively property rights does not correspond to legal validity. Attention is drawn to the fact that personal non-property rights are not extinguished upon the author’s death and are not limited in time of existence. It is concluded that personal non-property rights are closely related to the author’s property rights and ensure proper protection and defense of the latter. Therefore, they can be part of the inheritance, enabling the heirs to fully use the author’s property rights during their validity period.