ONCE AGAIN ABOUT INTELLECTUAL AND PROPERTY RIGHTS. IS THE LINE SEPARATING THEM SO INSURMOUNTABLE?

Abstract

The idea of referring to proprietary model pops up both in doctrine and in practice of copyright. The right of ownership reflects the cornerstone idea of copyright — the monopoly nature of the rights recognized for the author. The Russian Civil Code provides such exceptions for the situation of alienation of the original work by its owner — the holder of secondary exclusive rights. Material medium is of importance for the realization of certain schemes of use or limitation of copyright. 

Intellectual law unnecessarily interferes in the sphere of property rights when thing actually lose a significant part of its functionality and, accordingly, value in a situation when the copyright holder “disconnects” the thing from its support.  To balance the problem of “skewed” relations between the owner and the right holder, when the latter has a clear advantage in its legal position, it is possible to use the norms of both public (for example, in the sphere of antimonopoly regulation) and private law (taking into account the peculiarities of relations involving consumers or in rem methods of protection).