MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Victor Adames, Carlos Hernandez and Paola Becerril, Becerril, Coca & Becerril
• compilations, made up of collections of works, such as encyclopaedias, anthologies, and works or other elements such as databases, provided that said collections, due to their selection of informa - tion, or disposition of their contents and topics represent an intellectual creation. As previously mentioned, Mexico allows for cumula - tive protection of intellectual property. In this sense, in terms of its originality, the FCL grants protection of applied art works including graphic or textile designs. In terms of novelty and industrial application, it is pos - sible to ensure an industrial design protection over its registration. 3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection The elements required in order to qualify for copyright protection are originality and being fixed in a tangible medium. 3.3 Copyright Authorship Elements of Authorship The FCL defines the term author as the person (indi - vidual) that has created a literary or artistic work. Con - sidering that the Mexican copyright system does not rely on formal requirements for its acknowledgement, for a certain work and its author to be protected it is sufficient for the same to be fixed in a tangible medium and to express originality. Work for Hire The FCL does not expressly define the term work for hire; however, there are case law precedents estab - lishing this legal concept. The most important element of a work made for hire, is its creation without the author’s initiative but on behalf of another entity or person providing the financial scheme for its creation. In Mexico, an author is only a legal term reserved for individuals. However, in Mexico, copyrights provide two kinds of prerogatives to their holders: (i) those reserved exclusively for the authors (individuals), which are the so-called moral rights and (ii) the oth - ers, which may be held by individuals and/or entities, namely, economic rights.
Particularly in terms of a work made for hire, the mor - al rights of a certain work will only correspond to its author. However, the economic rights of such work would be reserved for the person (individual or com - pany) which requested the creation of the work. Joint Authorship For a work to be registered as one of joint authorship, each contributing author must have actively partici - pated in the creation of the work as a unified whole. This participation must be clearly documented as part of the final work. The extent of each author’s contri - bution may influence their respective share of rights; however, the authors may also agree on specific per - centages by mutual consent. In the absence of such an agreement, the FCL will distribute the moral and economic rights equally among the authors or based on evidence demonstrating each author’s actual con - tribution. In cases of co-authorship of works, the exploitation of the economic rights of the work itself would have to be agreed by most of the authors involved. 3.4 Copyright Rights The Mexican copyright system acknowledges the existence of two kinds of prerogatives in favour of copyright owners: their moral and economic rights. Their existence and legal treatment are included in the FCL. Mexico acknowledges the moral rights for authors of copyrighted works. The FCL provides that moral rights are considered united to the person of the author and this latter is the unique, original and perpetual holder of them. The moral rights are inalienable, imprescripti - ble, non-waivable and non-seizable. 3.5 Term of Protection and Termination Moral and economic rights have different durations. Moral rights are perpetual, while economic rights for authors will be active during their lifetimes and for 100 years after their deaths. Only economic rights are suitable to be terminated.
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