COSTA RICA Law and Practice Contributed by: Harry Zurcher, Marco López Volio and Kristel Faith Neurohr, Zurcher, Odio & Raven
2.5 Notices and Symbols According to Costa Rican legislation, the use of a specific type of symbol to denote that a trade mark is registered or that an owner asserts common law rights in the trade mark is not mandatory. However, if owners decide to use them, the authorised symbol is ® or the phrase “Registered Trademark”. 2.6 Related Rights Trade marks can also be protected as copyrights. Under Costa Rican law, one limitation on registering a trade mark is that it infringes a third-party copyright. 3. Copyright Ownership, Protection and Rights 3.1 Types of Copyrightable Works According to the Copyright and Related Rights Law, the following are eligible for copyright protection: • all productions in the literary, scientific and artistic fields, whatever the form of expression, such as books, pamphlets, letters and other writings; • computer programs, including their successive ver - sions and derived programs; • lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of a similar nature; • dramatic musical works, choreographic works and pantomimes; • musical compositions, whether or not accompa - nied by music, and cinematographic works, to which assimilated works are expressed by a pro - cess analogous to cinematography; • drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engrav - ing and lithography works, photographic works and works expressed by a process analogous to photography; • works of applied art, such as illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and plastic works relating to geog - raphy, topography, architecture or science; • collections of works such as encyclopaedias and anthologies which, by virtue of the selection or arrangement of the subject matter, constitute intel - lectual creations; • compilations of data or other material, in machine- readable or other form, which, by reason of the
selection or arrangement of their contents, consti - tute creations of an intellectual nature; and • derivative works such as adaptations, translations, musical arrangements and other transformations of original works which, while not in the public domain, have been authorised by their authors. If the requirements for copyright registration are met, industrial designs may be admissible for copyright protection. 3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection There is no examination in the registration process if the originality element is met. Copyright applications are essentially a deposit procedure, with formalities being the only elements examined. Originality is not regulated in the normative bodies, as there are different legal conceptions, which is why it is reserved for jurisprudence. It is a prerequisite for access to protection, in relation to the commitment and creativity contributed to the work. It also requires the individualised expression of the author, as well as the author’s personality. Originality is not linked or subordinated to the genre, extent or artistic merit, or purpose of the work, as these are irrelevant to copy - right. A work may meet the requirement of originality, even if it expresses a subject matter that was previously known or disclosed. The threshold of originality is exceeded when the creative capacity, reflected in the work, goes beyond the common field, so that the work becomes worthy of protection. The same applies to the originality of the title of the work, when it cannot be confused with another work of the same genre, another previously published work, or another work within the common field. 3.3 Copyright Authorship In principle, authorship is vested in the natural per - son who carries out the intellectual creation. How - ever, it is important to remember that the work can be done individually or collaboratively. On the other hand, ownership must always be related to the eco - nomic right. From authorship, the natural person, the creator, acquires the original ownership of their work.
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