Why do you need to deposit your work?

Russian intellectual property legislation does not establish the author's obligation to register copyright. At the same time, you can take care in advance of measures to secure rights, which can help in the event of a controversial situation.

Since 1995 the Russian Federation has become a full participant in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 09.09.1886, in order to develop copyright, the participating countries of this convention mutually recognize in their territories the copyrights of citizens and organizations of other signatories of this international agreement. In accordance with Article 5 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the enjoyment and exercise of rights in a work are not subject to any formalities; such use and exercise are independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work.

According to Article 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, copyright in a work initially arises with its author from the moment the work is created in an objective form and does not require mandatory registration. From the moment the work is created, the author can dispose of it in any way, as well as protect the rights to the work. When publishing a work, it is recommended to indicate the copyright symbol ©, the name of the author and the year of creation of the work.

Paragraph 3 of the above article clearly indicates that copyright extends to both published and unpublished works expressed in any objective form, including written, oral (in the form of public utterance, public performance and other similar form), in the form of an image, in the form of a sound or video recording, in a volumetric-spatial form.

In accordance with Article 1257 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the author of a work of science, literature or art is recognized as the citizen whose creative work created it. The person indicated as the author on the original or copy of the work or in any other way is considered its author, unless otherwise proven.

In paragraph 109 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 23, 2019 No. 10 “On the application of part four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” it is explained that when the court considers a case on copyright protection, one must proceed from the fact that, until otherwise proven, the author of the work is considered to be the person indicated as such on the original or copy of the work or otherwise in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 1300 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Article 1257 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), in the Register of Computer Programs or in the Register of Databases (clause 6 Article 1262 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

At the same time, the issue of authorship of the work can be considered by the arbitration court as part of the issue of whether the plaintiff has the right to claim (Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated February 22, 2011 No. 9095/10).

Thus, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides for the emergence of a presumption of authorship if a person is indicated as an author on a copy of a work or in the Register of computer programs or databases. Other sources confirming the presumption of authorship have not been established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Copyright in a work arises due to the fact of the creation of an object that meets the conditions of protectability: it is the result of the creative work of the author and expressed in an objective form. Taking this into account, only evidence that confirms the creation of a work by a specific person can establish the authorship of a specific person (for example, witness testimony, publications, drafts, evidence based on establishing the author’s creative style, etc.).

One of the measures for fixing rights to an unpublished work is deposition. As a result of this procedure, the applicant receives a certificate stating that as of a certain date (the filing date) he is the owner of the exclusive right to the work, and the author of the claimed work is also indicated, if it is another person. Deposition is not a mandatory procedure, but it is recommended to deposit the work, so in the case of future copyright protection, the deposit certificate is one of the proofs of the existence of the right to the work for the court.

Until 2018, the deposit of copyright objects was carried out by the Russian Copyright Society (RAO). Since 2018, RAO has transferred its authority to provide works deposit services to its official partners - services specializing in online copyright registration: JSC National Register of Intellectual Property (n'RIS) and LLC Aireg (Intellectual Copyright Registrar IREG). In addition, other organizations also deposit works.

The list of works that can be deposited is quite extensive - including, but not limited to: stories, novellas, novels, poetic works; Internet sites, author's descriptions of games, quizzes, lotteries, descriptions and scripts for competitions, musical works with or without text, literary and publishing projects; articles, brochures, scientific works, manuscripts of scientific developments, manuscripts of textbooks and teaching aids, manuscripts of various methods and teaching aids in various fields of science, including learning, teaching; catalogues, dictionaries, encyclopedias and other composite works, works of painting, sculpture, design, graphics, comics, works of architecture, photographic works, architectural and design projects, geological, geographical and other maps and plans, audiovisual works - films, television programs and film , videos, clips and so on.

The deposition procedure itself involves placing a file with a work in a secure digital cell, to which third parties do not have access. The author is issued a certificate of deposition, which indicates the date and time the object was loaded into the cell, and also records authorship of the object (until proven otherwise).

At the same time, in the decisions of the Intellectual Rights Court dated November 29, 2022 No. S01-1810/2022 in case No. A45-19244/2021, dated June 22, 2021 No. S01-842/2021 in case No. A60-72170/2019, dated March 19 .2021 No. S01-191/2021 in case No. A41-51614/2019 it is stated that the deposit of a work is a voluntary procedure not provided for by law, with which the law does not associate the occurrence of any consequences; depositing only confirms the existence at a certain point in time of a copy of a certain work.

The fact of depositing a work is not associated with the presumption established by Article 1257 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the person indicated as the author on the original or copy of the work or otherwise in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 1300 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is considered its author, unless otherwise proven.

A similar legal position is set out in the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated September 17, 2020 in case No. 305-ES20-8198.

When deciding to deposit a work, the following circumstances must be kept in mind.

1. Obtaining a certificate indicating the date and author of the work (until proven otherwise). Since the Russian Federation has become a full party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the certificate of deposit can be used in copyright disputes in other countries that are parties to this convention.

2. The certificate of deposit may be additional evidence of the right to the work in the event of a controversial situation.

3. Depositing a work can be considered as a method of pre-trial protection in the event of possible claims from other persons, as well as when the author or the copyright holder himself makes claims against other persons who illegally use the work.

4. Depositing a work can be considered as a convenient way of fixing rights in the event that it is necessary to alienate the exclusive right to a work or to provide the right to use such a work under a license agreement.

Thus, the fact of depositing works does not assign any rights to the person who made such deposit, but is an additional measure of fixing copyright in the work. The implementation of this procedure remains entirely at the discretion of the author or copyright holder.