NFT and Copyright — What Is Protected
The legal foundation of an NFT project lies in the Georgian law on copyright and neighbouring rights. Copyright covers works of science, literature and art that are the result of intellectual-creative activity — regardless of purpose, merit, genre, volume, form or means of expression. Protection extends to a work existing in objective form, whether or not it has been published or made available to the public. For NFTs this criterion is central: minting places a token on a chain, but the legally protected object is the work embedded in it — the image, the music, the video or the code.
The boundary matters no less: copyright does not extend to ideas, methods, processes, systems, means, concepts, principles, discoveries or facts, even where they are expressed, described or illustrated in a work. The law’s list of works expressly includes computer programs and databases, as well as derived and compiled works — translations, adaptations, compilations, encyclopedias, anthologies. Protection of a computer program extends to programs of every kind, in any language and form, including source text and object code.
How the Right Arises and Is Asserted
Copyright in a work arises from the moment of its creation: a work is considered created when it is expressed in some objective form that allows its perception and reproduction. Neither registration nor special formality nor any other formality is required for the right to arise or be exercised. In the NFT context this cuts both ways: the creator acquires the right quickly, but in a dispute proof rests precisely on the objective form and the fact of creation.
To assert the right, the holder of exclusive copyright may use the copyright notice, placed on every copy of the work and consisting of three elements: the Latin letter C in a circle — ©; the name (designation) of the right holder; and the year of the first publication of the work. In an NFT project the notice is easily embedded in the metadata and in the public description, and it carries evidentiary weight in demand correspondence.
Economic Rights and Royalties
The author or other copyright holder holds the exclusive right to use the work in any manner — to perform, authorise or prohibit. The law enumerates within that right reproduction; distribution of the original and copies; import; public display; public performance; communication to the public — including transmission such that the work is accessible to any person at a time and place chosen by that person — as well as translation and adaptation. For NFTs the formula of accessibility „at a chosen time and place“ is especially important: it covers digital galleries, streaming and content embedded in games.
The author is entitled to a royalty for any use of the work. The amount of the royalty and the procedures for its calculation and payment are fixed by contract between the author (or the right holder or a collective management organisation) and the user; failing agreement, a commission sets the tariff, and its decision may be appealed to court within 2 months of adoption. A royalty model on NFT sales must be built on exactly this legal mechanism. Note also that the author’s right over further distribution is exhausted by the first sale of a copy in Georgia — a norm that enters the analysis of token resale on the secondary market.
Co-Authorship, Transfer and Databases
Creating a work of art is often a team effort. Under the law, a work created by the joint intellectual-creative activity of two or more persons belongs to the co-authors jointly; their relations are defined by contract, and each co-author may use the part bearing independent significance. In an NFT project the separation of the artist’s, the developer’s and the curator’s functions rests precisely on this construction.
Copyright is transferred by operation of law, by will or inheritance, or by contract; the personal rights of authorship, of name and of integrity of the work are not inherited, though heirs may defend them. Economic rights may be transferred to a successor in whole or in part. Separately stands the database maker’s right: one who proves substantial investment in acquiring, verifying, refining or presenting the content may prevent extraction and/or re-utilisation of the whole contents or of a qualitatively and/or quantitatively significant part; the right is transferable by contract and operates independently of copyright in the materials contained in the database. NFT collection metadata pools rely on this norm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the NFT itself an object of copyright?
The protected object is the work embedded in the token — image, music, video, code. Copyright attaches to the result of intellectual-creative activity in objective form; ideas and concepts remain unprotected.
Does the work need to be registered?
No. Copyright arises from the moment of creation; no registration or formality is required. In a dispute, the objective form and the fact of creation are decisive.
Which rights are conveyed to the NFT buyer?
That is defined by contract: economic rights pass in whole or in part to the successor, while personal rights remain with the author. The terms of sale must be reflected precisely in the metadata and on the site.
How do royalties work on secondary sales?
The royalty model is built by contract; in Georgia the right over further distribution is exhausted by the first sale of a copy, so the secondary-market payment mechanism is written through contractual means.
How We Help on Legal.ge
Legal.ge prepares the full legal wrapping of an NFT project: we map the chain of rights from author to collection, draft contracts with authors, developers and the platform, prepare royalty rules and the © notice, and arrange protection for databases and metadata. Contact us — your project will be legally in order before the mint.