Copyright registration in Slovenia. Slovenia is a country in southern Central Europe that connects Europe’s main cultural and commercial routes. Slovenia is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. Slovenia covers an area of 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic and a member of the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO. 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 Slovenia.
Copyright in Slovenia
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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 Slovenia 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 Slovenia 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 Slovenia immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Slovenia
Slovenia is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1930, as Yugoslavia.
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 Slovenia is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Slovenia 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 Slovenia 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 Slovenia
To obtain copyright registration in Slovenia, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Slovenia;
- 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 Slovenia
Slovenia has been a member of the Berne Convention since 17 June 1930 as inherited from the former Yugoslavia, to which the declaration of continued application made on 12 June 1996, the World Trade Organization since 30 July 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 March 2002.
While part of Yugoslavia, Slovenian works were covered by the 1978 Yugoslav Copyright Act. The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office holds an English-language version of the act as in force from 13 January 2007. The Official Gazette holds the Slovene original of the consolidated act as of 2007. This was replaced by the Copyright and Related Rights Act of March 30, 1995.
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Copyright and Related Rights Act (as amended up to October 22, 2016) as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Slovenia. WIPO holds the Slovenian language unofficial consolidated text No. 12 of this law in the WIPO Lex database. It is the most recent version of the Copyright and Related Rights Act of March 30, 1995.
You can see a list of Slovenia IP firms here.