FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Vanessa Bouchara, Adèle Maier and Louise Lacroix, Cabinet Bouchara
that it creates an association in the public’s mind between the trade mark and the individual, and that this causes them harm or prejudice. This is not easy to prove, but it could be established, notably when a trade mark reproduces the name of a celebrity without their authorisation. The scope of trade mark rights is not limited by copyrights. However, similarly to surnames, a trade mark could be revoked if it infringes a third party’s copyrights. 3. Copyright Ownership, Protection and Rights 3.1 Types of Copyrightable Works French law provides a non-exhaustive list of protected works, covering graphic works, pho - tographic works, creations of seasonal clothing and accessories, as well as literary works, dra - matic works, musical works, cinematographic works, works of fine art such as paintings and sculptures, plans, maps and sketches. However, this list is not comprehensive, so a non-categorised work of art can be protected if it meets the general requirement of original - ity. Industrial designs are also entitled to copy - right protection provided they are original under French copyright law. The protection is not limited to fixed works per se. However, in order to be protected, the work must have actually been completed/created. Mere concepts and ideas are not protectable as such. 3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection Article L112-2 of the Intellectual Property Code provides a non-exhaustive list of protectable
works under French law. Under French Law, a work must be original in order to benefit from copyright protection. Protection is automatically awarded to original works upon the creation of the work, without any formality. There is therefore no public list or registry of protected works in France. Originality under French copyright law is assessed by the courts and is understood to cover a work that bears the imprint (the expres - sion) of the author’s personality. This criterion applies to all kinds of work – the type or form of the work is irrelevant, as is the merit of the author or the purpose of the work. 3.3 Copyright Authorship In France, the author is a natural person (com - panies cannot be considered “authors” under French law, even though they may own the cop - yright) who is generally identified by their name. To address the limitation of natural persons as authors, French law provides that unless proven otherwise, authorship belongs to the person or persons under whose name the work is dis - closed, and it can be a company. There is a pre - sumption of copyright ownership, in the absence of a claim by the author, in favour of the person who makes unequivocal use/disclosure of the original work under their name. In case of authorship contestation, the only way to establish authorship is by submitting the assignment agreement between the parties, which has to meet a number of specific condi - tions (precise determination of scope, territory, duration of the assignment, for example). Hence, except for software and other specific excep -
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