Computer Software and Copyright

– Industrial Property Law of June 27, 1991, as last amended.
– Federal Copyright Law of December 27, 1996.
– Amendments of May 19, 1997 and July 23, 2003.
– Regulation of the Federal Copyright Law of May 22, 1998.
– Amendments of December 14, 1999 and September 14, 2005.
– Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, in force since November 5, 2020.

Membership in International Conventions

– Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Union).
– International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention).
– Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms (Phonograms Convention).
– Convention Relating to the Distribution of Program-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite (Satellites Convention – Brussels).
– WIPO Copyright Treaty, since March 6, 2002.
– WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, since May 20, 2002.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since January 1, 1995.

Protection

Computer software can be protected by the Federal Copyright Law (as a copyright). 

Registration: as a copyright, registration is not required. 

Foreigners: enjoy all the same rights as the natives. 

Protected works: the Federal Copyright Law acknowledges protection for the following types of work: literary, musical (with or without lyrics), dramatic (such as plays), dance, pictorial and drawings, cartoons and comics, architectural, films and audiovisual pieces, radio and television broadcasts, photographic, pieces of applied art (graphic and textile design), compilations (such as databases, encyclopedias and autobiographies) software and computer programs and databases.

Privileges of the protection rights: (a) moral right, acknowledgement to the owner of the work, which is an inalienable, non-lapsable, non-renounceable and unseizable right; (b) patrimonial right: the right to exploit the work in an exclusive manner or to authorize third parties to do so. 

Transmission: patrimonial rights may be transferred or licensed onerously and temporarily; moral rights or acknowledgement rights cannot be waived by the author. 

Validity: patrimonial rights: during the lifetime of the author and up to 100 years after his/her death.