Copyright registration in Lithuania. Lithuania is a developed country, with a high-income advanced economy; ranking very high on the Human Development Index. It ranks favorably in terms of civil liberties, press freedom, and internet freedom. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Lithuania.
Copyright in Lithuania
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Lithuania early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Lithuania will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Lithuania immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Lithuania
Lithuania is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1994.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Lithuania is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Lithuania will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Lithuania is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Lithuania
To obtain copyright registration in Lithuania, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Lithuania;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Lithuania
The copyright law of Lithuania was last amended on 22 December 2015 – No XII-2237.
Besides the Berne Convention, the copyright law of Lithuania are also influenced by the WIPO treaty which Lithuania joined in 6 March 2002 and the World Trade Organization since 31 May 2001.
As of 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. VIII-1185 of May 18, 1999, on Copyright and Related Rights as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Lithuania. WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.
Under Law No. VIII-1185 of 1999, as amended up to Law No. XII-1183 of 2014, the author’s economic rights shall run for the life of the author and for 70 years after his death, irrespective of the date when the work is lawfully made available to the public.
You can see a list of Lithuania IP firms here.