Peculiarities of the Subject of Agreements on the Disposal of Property Rights to Objects of Related Rights Under the Legislation of Ukraine
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Intellectual property law, despite the fact that its foundation is civil law itself and intellectual property law is formed on its principles, has its own characteristics. One of these characteristics is the understanding of intellectual property law not as a branch of law or academic discipline, but as a legal category. Understanding this, as well as what we are talking about objects of intellectual property law, allows us to distinguish this right from real rights. Why is this important? This is important for a correct understanding of the subject of contracts under which it is possible to dispose of property rights, including objects of related rights. Unfortunately, the correct understanding of the subject of agreements on the disposal of property rights, including objects of related rights, is complicated by both the uncertainty in the relevant articles of both the Civil Code of Ukraine and the relevant Law on the subject of agreements, and the unification by the category of the subject of the agreement of both the object of related rights itself and the property right to it, which determines the relevance of writing this work. When writing this work, as a problem statement for himself, the author decided to draw a clear distinction between the object of intellectual property rights, in the context of the work – the object of related rights and the property right to it, and accordingly, considering the latter through the prism of all forms of disposal of property rights to objects, including related rights, which are provided for by both the Civil Code of Ukraine and the relevant Law, became a cross-cutting task of this work. Accordingly, when conducting this study, the author used a dialectical approach, which formed the methodological basis of the study. As a result of the study, the author concluded that it is the property right itself in the case of granting a particular object for use that is the subject of a license agreement or a public license. Thus, it is property rights that are fully or partially the subject of such agreements as an agreement on the creation by order and use of an object of copyright or an object of related rights, an agreement on the transfer (alienation) of property rights to an object of copyright or an object of related rights, an employment agreement (contract) in terms of the conditions for the distribution of property rights to service objects, including related rights. In his work, the author distinguishes between property rights (property rights) and the object (objects) of related rights, analyzes each of the types of agreements on this issue defined by the legislator. After all, it is the subject of the contract that distinguishes one form of disposition from another. As for the latter form, namely an employment contract (contract), the author proposes to replace the existing form of disposition with a new contract, namely a contract on the transfer (alienation) of property rights to service objects, including related rights, while noting that the settlement of property relations to service objects of related rights is also possible through a license agreement. Indirectly, in his work, the author pays attention to the relationship between a license agreement and a license, arguing that a license, in the author’s opinion, is not a separate unilateral transaction, but is an integral part of a license agreement. A public license is also not a unilateral transaction. Unilaterality has no relation to the aforementioned forms of disposition, since we are talking about the emergence of mutual rights and obligations under the aforementioned forms. The answer to this is the question of whether the accession agreement becomes a unilateral transaction? This agreement does not become such, since mutual rights and obligations also arise for both one and the other party. And the uncertainty of the party does not mean that when a party joins a public license, it will be relieved of the need to comply with its relevant conditions. Special attention was paid to such a form of disposition as an agreement on the creation by order and the use of an object of copyright or an object of related rights, since the peculiarity of this form of disposition is that, in the author’s opinion, the very legal nature of the creation of an object, including related rights by order, should be understood more broadly. It is difficult to imagine that by placing an order for the production, for example, of a phonogram, as an object of related rights, the customer will receive only the corresponding recording on the carrier. Does this correspond to the very essence of this agreement? It is believed that no. It is also considered appropriate to exclude the word “use” from the name of this type of contract, since it contradicts, in the author’s opinion, the purpose for which the relevant contract is concluded. In addition, there are other forms of disposal for the provision of property rights to an object of related rights for use, which were just mentioned above. We add that this contract cannot be such a contract that would provide for both the provision of property rights for use and the actual transfer (alienation) of property rights (property rights). The main feature is indeed that together with the property rights (property rights) the object created to order is also transferred. Thus, the author carries out a comprehensive analysis of all forms of disposal of property rights to objects of related rights from the point of view of the correct definition of the subject with the expression of proposals for making the necessary changes to the current versions of the articles of both the Civil Code of Ukraine and the relevant Law, which constitutes the practical value of this work. Indirectly, such scientists as S. I. Shimon, A. S. Shtefan, I. Ye. Yakubivsky and others devoted their works to issues related to the topic raised in the article.
Source: Constitutional State
Author: N. H. Pecherova
Language: English
Topic: Intellectual Property Law
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409767567