Fedorova N.V. The television format as a subject matter of copyright. ‒ Qualifying scientific work published as a manuscript.
Thesis for the scientific degree of Candidate of Juridical Sciences on specialty 12.00.03 – civil law and the civil process; family law; international private law. – Scientific Research Institute of Intellectual Property of National Academy of Law Sciences of Ukraine. Kyiv, 2021.
The thesis focuses on the study of theoretical and applied problems of civil regulating the process of the television format creation and usage. The work carried out a scientific and theoretical substantiation of the integral mechanism of the television format legal protection as a subject matter of copyright, as well as the development of appropriate proposals and recommendations aimed at improving legislation in the field of intellectual property and its application practice.
Based on the processing of a large source base, the features of television format as a type of audiovisual work were revealed and classified, and its concept was formulated. The external form of the television format expression has been determined, which is manifested in the form of an independent, integral object of civil law in its audiovisual reflection (image) on any screen, obtained by reproducing by technical means. The elements of the television format internal structure are investigated, the combination of which gives it a new quality, which is the basis for its identification, selection among similar objects of legal protection; their legal nature is determined. The current state of the television format defense and protection in Ukraine and in foreign countries is characterized, problems and trends in the legal regulation of relations on television format are revealed, while attention is drawn to the necessity of unifying the terminology for audiovisual works, their creation and implementation. Based on the staged character of the television format creation process, features of creative results that characterize each stage, the content of the television format creation participants’ activities, a system of copyright subjects for a television format is discovered, and their classification is proposed. Attention is paid to the fact that there is a lack of a definitive norm related to the “author” concept determination in the legislation of Ukraine and international legal acts. Thus, it is substantiated that the author of an audiovisual work is an individual who, by his creative intellectual labor, when creating a work, embodies his creative intention in it and/or determines the ways to implement it. It is justified that the television format is a collective work, and it is proposed to define the “collective work” notion as a product developed as a result of two or more authors’ creative activity, which structurally can include an unlimited number of elements, regardless of the form of their expression, combined into a single whole. The substantiation is given that the television format as a collective work, developed because of creative activity of the authors’ team represented from various art branches, consists of separate parts (elements), regardless of the external form of their expression, united by a single creative concept and form a single indissoluble whole. The legal basis for composing a team of authors, whose activities are aimed at creating a television format, which may not be characterized by co-authorship, are revealed. The impossibility of creating a television format exclusively by the creative work of authors, and so the recognition of their copyright to the television format as a final product embodied in an audiovisual work, is substantiated.
