Legal notes to copyright registration in San Marino

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Copyright registration in San Marino. San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, is a small country in Southern Europe enclaved by Italy. San Marino is a developed country. San Marino’s per capita GDP and standard of living are comparable to that of Italy. Key industries include banking, electronics, and ceramics. The main agricultural products are wine and cheese. San Marino imports mainly staple goods from Italy. 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 San Marino.

Copyright in San Marino

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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 San Marino 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 San Marino 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 San Marino immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.

Copyright registration in San Marino

San Marino is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 2020.

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 San Marino is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in San Marino 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 San Marino 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 needed to resolve issues related to copyright, proving 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 San Marino

To obtain copyright registration in San Marino, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:

  • Declaration of copyright registration in San Marino;
  • 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 San Marino

San Marino has been a member of the Berne Convention and WIPO Copyright Treaty since 2 September 2020.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 8 of 25 January 1991 – Protection of Copyright as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of San Marino.

WIPO holds the text of this law in the WIPO Lex database. The law was later amended by Law No. 63 of 24 June 1997 and Law No. 43 of 22 February 2006.

You can see a list of San Marino IP firms here.

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