MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Paul Micallef Grimaud, Philip Formosa and Michela Zammit Lupi, Ganado Advocates
• collect, manage and distribute royalties for uses such as public performance, broadcasting, com - munication to the public and online exploitation; • monitor and enforce rights, including pursuing infringement claims; and • negotiate tariffs and licensing terms. Rights-Holder Representation • Rights-holders may mandate CMOs to manage specific rights or categories of use. • Mandates may be exclusive or non-exclusive, sub - ject to transparency requirements. • CMOs may represent foreign rights-holders through reciprocal/bilateral representation agree - ments with overseas societies. Regulatory Oversight and Transparency Under Maltese law and EU-derived rules, CMOs must: • operate on a non-discriminatory and transparent basis; • provide members with regular reporting on collec - tions, deductions and distributions; • publish tariffs and licensing conditions; and • provide complaints and dispute resolution mecha - nisms for members and users. Certain disputes may be referred to alternative dispute resolution or competent authorities, depending on the issue. A CMO requires prior authorisation from the Maltese Copyright Board in order to operate as such in Malta. The CMO’s tariff of royalties must also be submitted to the Board and must obtain its approval. Maltese law also includes the notion of extended collective licensing (ECL), which entitles a CMO to grant licenc - es for rights on behalf of non-member rights-holders, subject to opt-out rights. ECL is particularly used to facilitating licensing of mass-repertoire works. 3.7 Copyright Registration Copyright arises automatically upon creation of an original work, provided the statutory requirements under the Copyright Act are met. Malta does not grant substantive legal advantages (such as presumptions of validity, priority or standing to sue) based on cop - yright registration. No registration, deposit or other formality is required before enforcement proceedings may be brought. Accordingly, the absence of registra -
tion does not affect either the subsistence of copyright or the right to bring infringement proceedings in Malta. In addition, Malta does not maintain an official copy - right register comparable to trade mark or design reg - isters. There is therefore no publicly available national database for copyright works. In practice, authors or rights-holders may record works through private reg - istries, notaries or third-party services for evidentiary purposes. These however have limited evidentiary value. There is no requirement for foreign copyright owners to appoint or be represented by a Maltese attorney in order to obtain protection or enforce their rights. Assistance by local counsel is, however, required when initiating court proceedings in Malta. Maltese law imposes no mandatory formalities such as notices, symbols, or deposits. Use of a copyright notice (copyright symbol, year, owner name) is permit - ted, but purely voluntary. 3.8 Copyright Application Requirements See 3.7 Copyright Registration . No filing fee applies since there is no copyright regis - tration mechanism under Maltese law. 3.9 Refusal of Registration There is no registration procedure. 3.10 Related Rights Under Maltese law, a work protected by copyright may also have parallel trade mark protection, provided it independently satisfies the legal requirements of each regime. Maltese law does not automatically exclude copyright protection where the subject matter or parts thereof already benefit from trade mark protection, and vice versa. However, trade mark registrations cannot be used as a means to extend copyright-like protection indefinitely (ie, evergreening), including for purely artistic or decorative works that do not function as indicators of commercial origin.
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