PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João Valadas Coriel, Sofia Quental, António Vieira and Inês Grácio, Valadas Coriel & Associados
The registration does not expire (notwithstanding the economic copyrights expiry within 70 years after the author’s death) and is not subject to renewal for the time being. The non-mandatory nature of copyright registration equally applies to digital works, including purely digital artworks and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The creation or minting of a blockchain token does not constitute a formal copyright registration under Portuguese law, nor does it replace registration before the competent authority where such registration is legally required (eg, for certain legal acts affecting economic rights). In practice, digital timestamps, platform records or blockchain entries may serve as evidentiary elements in disputes; however, they do not create or transfer copyright ownership by themselves. 3.3 Resale Right In Portugal, the droit de suite is ruled by the Por- tuguese Copyrights Code under the title Direito de Sequência and consists of an economic right granted to authors of original works of art, as well to their heirs or beneficiaries, which entitles them to receive a per - centage of the resale price whenever their work is sold by a third party, thus permitting them to benefit from the increasing value of their works even after such works have been sold for the first time. However, the resale right is not applicable to architec - ture works, industrial designs or applied arts (such as decorative, functional, design and/or craftsmanship arts). In addition, the resale right only applies if the original works of art is resold by a professional seller (such as a gallery, auction house, or other commercial estab - lishment) for at least EUR3,000, so does not extend to private sales between individuals unless the seller is acting as a professional, nor to resales below that value. The resale right is also not considered applicable for transactions involving original works of art intended to become part of a non-profit museum’s collection that is open to the public, regardless of the selling conditions.
The royalty is a percentage of the resale price to be paid by the seller or intermediary (auction house, gal - lery or art dealer), and is subject to a decreasing scale: • 4% for the portion of the sale price up to EUR50,000; • 3% for the portion between EUR50,000 and EUR200,000; • 1% for the portion between EUR200,000 and EUR350,000; • 0.5% for the portion between EUR350,000 and EUR500,000; and • 0.25% for any amount above EUR500,000. The maximum resale right royalty per transaction is EUR12,500. To determine the resale price, the artist, their rep - resentative or their heirs may claim from any party involved in the transaction the strictly necessary infor - mation within three years from the date of knowledge of each transaction. The application of the resale right to blockchain-based transactions, including NFTs, remains legally uncer - tain. The statutory resale right applies to the resale of original works of art involving art market profes - sionals. Where a transaction concerns the transfer of a blockchain token rather than the physical artwork itself, questions may arise as to whether such transfer qualifies as a “resale” of the original work within the meaning of the Copyright Code. In practice, certain NFT platforms implement con - tractual or smart contract-based royalty mechanisms. However, such mechanisms are distinct from the stat - utory resale right and do not necessarily replace or exclude its application where the legal requirements are met. Additional uncertainty may arise where transactions occur on decentralised platforms without clearly iden - tifiable professional intermediaries, potentially affect - ing the enforceability and collection of resale royalties. 3.4 Using Copyrighted Images To obtain the necessary permissions for the use of a copyrighted image, it is necessary to first determine:
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