SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Yvonne Tang, Lim Siau Wen and Ruby Tham, Drew & Napier LLC
The local courts have not had the opportunity to con - sider how a trade mark that is a surname interacts with moral rights laws under the Copyright Act. As it stands, the scope of trade mark laws is generally not limited by copyright or related rights laws. 3. Copyright Ownership, Protection and Rights 3.1 Types of Copyrightable Works Types of Works Sections 8 and 9 of the Copyright Act provide that there are nine categories of work: literary, dramatic, musical, artistic (all of the foregoing “authorial work”), a published edition of an authorial work, sound record - ing, a film, a broadcast and a cable programme. These are statutory categories. Dual Protection The Copyright Act has provisions delimiting the scope of copyright protection for “industrial” artistic works, under Sections 272 to 276. Subject to the other gen - eral provisions, other industrial designs are entitled to copyright protection. 3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection The essential elements for authorial works to qualify for copyright protection are: • the existence of a “connecting factor” – ie, the work must be connected with Singapore or a recip - rocating country in a relevant way; • the work must exist in some material form; and • the work must be original (see Sections 109 to 111 of the Copyright Act). As for non-authorial works, the “connecting factor” is also an essential element (see Sections 117 (1), 120, 123, 126 (1), and 130 (1) of the Copyright Act). Addi - tionally, for a published edition of an authorial work, it must not be a reproduction of a previous edition of the same authorial work (see Section 117 (2) of the Copyright Act). For a broadcast, it must not be a repeat broadcast made after the expiry of the copy - right in the original broadcast (see Section 129 (3) of
the Copyright Act). For a cable programme, it must not be a broadcast that has been received and immedi - ately re-transmitted via the cable network (see Section
130 (2)(a) of the Copyright Act). 3.3 Copyright Authorship Authorship
The Copyright Act does not define “author” or “author - ship”. The Court of Appeal in Asia Pacific Publishing Pte Ltd v Pioneers & Leaders (Publishers) Pte Ltd [2011] 4 SLR 381 held that only natural persons could be considered an author in copyright law, and a cor - porate body was not so entitled. For a natural person to qualify as an author, they must have contributed the relevant types of mental labour, skill or judgement which can confer originality to the authorial work. Section 166 of the Copyright Act provides a rebutta - ble presumption as to authorship, in situations where a name purporting to be that of the author (or a joint author) of an authorial work appears on a published copy of the work, or where a name purporting to be that of the author (or a joint author) of the work appears on an artistic work when it is made, and the name is a person’s true name or a name by which a person is commonly known. A “work made for hire” is not a term used in the con - text of Singapore copyright laws. In cases where cop - yright work is created under commissioning contracts or employment, the author remains the natural person who created the work. Under Section 133 (1)(a) of the Copyright Act, the author is the first copyright owner of an authorial work. This applies to commissioned works where the commissioning contract is made on or after the date of commencement of the current Act. The Copyright Act does not define “commissioned work”. Based on the position that authorship is limited to human authorship, it would appear that a person can - not claim authorship of an authorial work not created by a human/created without the intervention of, or direction by, any human. Joint Authorship Section 10 of the Copyright Act provides that an authorial work is a “work of joint authorship” if it is
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