Copyright Licensing in Georgia
Licensing copyright begins with three questions: what may be transferred (Article 35 — the grounds of transfer), what type of licence is granted — exclusive or ordinary (Articles 37 and 38), and what the contract must say (Article 40). This page explains all three blocks so that licensor and licensee understand the risks in advance.
Of the three grounds of transfer — law, testament, contract — licensing practice directly concerns the third, yet the first two constantly descend upon it: when a contract is concluded with an heir or successor, the status is determined by the document of succession, and that document is checked at the very first stage of the negotiations — otherwise the whole transaction becomes questionable.
What Is Transferred — Article 35
Copyright is transferred by law or by will under inheritance, or by contract. By law, within the term of copyright, the exclusive rights of use pass to the heirs unless the will provides otherwise. The rights of authorship, name and integrity do not pass by inheritance — heirs have the standing to defend them, without limitation in time. The author may appoint a person to defend these rights during his life, and where heirs are absent or act improperly, the defence is conducted by Sakpatenti. For licensing this means: the subject of negotiation is only the economic sphere — personal rights are not subject to licence.
One detail of inheritance also matters here: unless the author determined otherwise during his life, only one of his personal rights passes by inheritance — the right to permit others to attach illustrations, forewords, commentaries or explanations to the work — and that right too only for the term of copyright. Such details enter licensing negotiations because the holder's status and its definition are determined precisely by these rules.
In dispute practice this distinction decides standing: the holder of an exclusive licence himself restrains third parties — the author included — from use, and where the licensee does not enforce the prohibition the author intervenes; the holder of an ordinary licence is merely one among equal persons, and his claim is assessed in comparison with the other licensees. The type of the contract therefore determines even the formulation of the subject of the claim in court.