Who owns the copyright of professional software?

In the real society, we find that the so-called job Software is software developed by natural persons during their tenure in the unit. The so-called entrusted development software is software that is entrusted to others to develop according to the agreement. In this regard, the editor of Legal Savior Network will give you a detailed introduction below about who owns the copyright of works produced in these ways, and who should own the copyright of professional software.

1. Who owns the copyright of job software

The so-called job software refers to natural persons The software developed during the period of employment in the unit mainly refers to the software developed under the following three circumstances:

1. The software developed in response to the development goals clearly specified in the job Developed;

2. The software developed is the foreseeable or natural result of engaging in work activities;

3. Software that mainly uses the unit's funds, special equipment, undisclosed specialized information and other material conditions, and is the unit's responsibility.

The "Software Protection Regulations" stipulate the copyright ownership of professional software, which is different from the "Copyright Law" stipulates for general works. The "Copyright Law" stipulates that under normal circumstances, the copyright of work created by citizens to complete the work tasks of a legal person or other organization is enjoyed by the author, but the legal person or other organization has the right to priority use within the scope of its business. Within two years after the work is completed, the author may not allow a third party to use the work in the same way as the work is used by the unit without the consent of the unit. It can be seen that under normal circumstances, the copyright of professional works belongs to the author, and the employer has priority to use it. The copyright of professional software belongs to the employer. It is stipulated that the copyright of software professional works belongs to the unit rather than to the employee who actually created it, because the development of software usually requires a lot of investment from the unit. If the investing unit does not enjoy the copyright, it will not be able to recover its investment and obtain returns through the exercise of the copyright, and the software industry will not be able to develop. Therefore, it is illegal for a unit's software developers to continue to use the software developed in the original unit to deepen, upgrade, make non-essential changes, etc. after switching to another unit, and it is an infringement of the original unit's software copyright.

2. Who owns the copyright of the commissioned software?

1. Software copyright belongs to the software developer, that is, it belongs to the actual organization and development, a legal person or other organization that directly develops and assumes responsibility for the developed software; or a natural person who independently completes software development relying on its own conditions and assumes responsibility for the software.

2. The ownership of the copyright of cooperatively developed software shall be stipulated in a written contract signed by the co-developers. If there is no written contract or the contract does not clearly stipulate, if the jointly developed software can be divided and used, the developers can independently enjoy the copyright for the parts developed by them; if the jointly developed software cannot be divided and used, the copyright shall be jointly enjoyed by all co-developers.

3. For software developed under the entrustment of others, the ownership of the copyright shall be stipulated in a written contract signed by the entruster and the trustee; there is no written contract or the contract does not clearly stipulate , whose copyright is owned by the trustee.

4. For software developed with tasks assigned by state agencies, the ownership and exercise of copyright shall be stipulated in the project assignment letter or contract; this is not specified in the project assignment letter or contract. As stipulated in the regulations, software copyright shall be enjoyed by the legal person or other organization that accepts the task.

5. If the software developed by a natural person while serving in a legal person or other organization falls into any of the following circumstances, the copyright of the software shall be enjoyed by the legal person or other organization:

(1) Software developed for the development goals clearly specified in the job

(2) The software developed is the foreseeable or natural result of engaging in work activities

(3) The funds and dedicated funds of legal persons or other organizations are mainly used. Software developed with equipment, undisclosed specialized information and other material and technical conditions and for which legal persons or other organizations are responsible related content. It can be seen that after the software developers of the unit change jobs to another unit, they continue to use the software developed in the original unit to deepen, upgrade, make non-essential changes, etc. It is illegal and is an infringement of the original unit's software copyright. If you have more questions in this regard, Legal Savior Network provides professional legal consulting services.