MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Victor Adames, Carlos Hernandez, Paola Becerril and Eduardo Saldaña, BC&B Law & Business
3. Copyright Ownership, Protection and Rights 3.1 Types of Copyrightable Works Article 13 of the FCL establishes copyright pro - tection of the following categories of work: • literary; • musical, with or without lyrics; • dramatic; • dance; • pictorial or drawing; • sculptural and plastic art; • cartoons and comic strips; • architectural; • cinematographic and other audiovisual works; • radio and television programmes; • computer programs; • photography; • applied art works that include graphic or tex - tile design, and • compilations, made up of collections of works, such as encyclopaedias, anthologies, and works or other elements such as data - bases, provided that said collections, due to their selection of information, or disposition of their contents and topics represent an intel - lectual creation. As previously mentioned, Mexico allows for cumulative protection of intellectual property. In this sense, in terms of its originality, the FCL grants protection of applied art works including graphic or textile designs. In terms of novelty and industrial application, it is possible to ensure an industrial design protection over its registra - tion.
3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection The elements required in order to qualify for cop - yright protection are originality and being fixed in a tangible medium. 3.3 Copyright Authorship Elements of Authorship The FCL defines the term author as the person (individual) that has created a literary or artistic work. Considering that the Mexican copyright system does not rely on formal requirements for its acknowledgement, for a certain work and its author to be protected it is sufficient for the same to be fixed in a tangible medium and to express originality. Work for Hire The FCL does not expressly defines the term work for hire; however there are case law prec - edents establishing this legal concept. The most important element of a work made for hire, is its creation without the author’s initiative but on behalf on another entity or person providing the financial scheme for its creation. In Mexico, an author is only a legal term reserved for individuals. However, in Mexico, copyrights provide two kinds of prerogatives to their hold - ers: (i) those reserved exclusively for the authors (individuals), which are the so-called moral rights and (ii) the others, which may be hold by indi - viduals and/or entities, namely, economic rights. Particularly in terms of a work made for hire, the moral rights of a certain work will only cor - respond to its author. However, the economic rights of such work would be reserved for the person (individual or company) which requested the creation of the work.
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