FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Vanessa Bouchara, Adèle Maier and Louise Lacroix, Cabinet Bouchara
under a representation agreement) and the ter - ritories covered. 3.7 Copyright Registration Under French copyright law, protection is auto - matically awarded to original works upon the creation of the work, without any formality or notices or symbols. There is therefore no public list or registry of pro - tected works in France. 3.8 Copyright Application Requirements There is no applicable information in this juris - diction. 3.9 Refusal of Registration There is no applicable information in this juris - diction. 3.10 Related Rights A copyright can also be protected by a trade mark, for example where the copyrighted work is a logo or a slogan (or even a sound, since trade marks can now be audio files as long as they are distinctive and ensure the essential function of a trade mark). It can also be protected by related rights such as design rights when the copyrighted work is a garment or a drawing, for example. 4. Trade Mark Registrations and Applications 4.1 Trade Mark Registration The French principle is that a trade mark cannot be protected merely by virtue of its use. Regis - tration is the only way to benefit from trade mark rights. However, the use of a sign in the course
of a commercial activity can result in two main situations. The first situation involves unregistered well- known signs, under Article 6bis of the Paris Convention, although the case law is very strict on applying this concept. The sign may enjoy trade mark protection without registration pro - vided that it has acquired a strong reputation among French consumers, and that these con - sumers spontaneously associate this sign with the goods and services for which it is used. The second situation is the acquisition of dis - tinctiveness through use (Article L.711-2 of the French Intellectual Property Code). In this case, intensive use, which guarantees the function of identifying the origin of the goods, does not con - fer protection as such, but makes it possible to obtain registration of the trade mark that is not inherently distinctive, thus in principle not inher - ently registrable. 4.2 Trade Mark Register The National Trademark Register, which is administered by the French Trademark Office, gathers all French trade marks. Each new event related to a trade mark (eg, application, refusal, registration, limitation, assignment, licence, cancellation) is published in a Bulletin (BOPI) which is then incorporated into the National Trademark Register. The French Trademark Office (FTO) also main - tains an online database of the trade mark rights that have effect in France and French Polynesia. It is highly recommended to conduct an avail - ability search before applying to register a mark.
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