The world of intellectual property encompasses more than just inventions, trademarks, and designs. For creative works – that is, “original intellectual creations,” as the law defines them – copyright applies. Copyright law follows the creator principle: the author of a work is the natural person who created it. There can also be multiple authors.
You do not need to register a copyright-protected work: protection arises automatically upon the creation of the work. (Note: the idea alone is not yet protected!)
What counts as an original intellectual creation?
- works of musical art
- literary works of all kinds – including software
- works of visual art such as paintings, photographs, and sculptures, as well as architecture and decorative arts
- works of cinematography
Copyright is a subset of intellectual property law, so the principle of territoriality applies here: each country enacts its own regulations to protect intellectual works, resulting in varying levels of protection. In Austria, this is governed by the Copyright Act (UrhG).
Securing usage rights for commissioned works
Copyright is generally non-transferable – but creators can grant others rights of use and permissions for their works. If you commission external service providers (e.g., contractors or freelancers) to create a work that falls under copyright law, you must contractually regulate the rights of use and modification. Examples of this include software development or logo design.
If you wish to register a commissioned work for intellectual property protection (e.g., a logo as a trademark or a design as a registered design), you should agree on this in advance. It should also be clarified whether the contractor may use the work for reference purposes (e.g., as a portfolio piece on their own website).
You can find more information on copyright here:
- Copyright at a glance
- Copyright and gontracts
- General information on saferinternet.at