A Review of the Issues Relating to the Multiplicity of Legal Rules Protecting the Title of Literary and Artistic Work: Where Identical Protection Stems from Different Regulatory Rules
Dr. Nazzal Mansour Al Kiswani
Assist. Prof. Commercial Law – School of Law Qatar University
Dr. Basem Mohammad Melhem
Associate Prof. Commercial Law – School of Law Jordan University
Abstract
The research discusses the issue of multiplicity of legal rules governing the protection of the title of the literary and artistic work. Similar protection is also equally available from a wide range of other laws.
The phenomena of theft of titles of literary and artistic work is not a new phenomena. Despite this, the impact on how it is now starting to threaten the entire literary and artistic work industry is becoming more of an issue. This may be due to such literary and artistic works’ titles becoming more in demand and their financial value becoming significantly more substantial. However, this becomes an issue when the sentimental and financial value exceeds the actual value of the item in question when linked to the commercial valuation.
Currently, copyrights laws (author’s rights) provide the legal protection of literary and artistic works nationally across the board. Having said so, there seems to be a discrepancy in the laws providing such protection to literary and artistic works between the Arab and the Western legal systems. That is to suggest, some countries provide such legal protection via copyrights laws, whereas others provide protection via trademarks laws or even unfair competition laws. Indeed, some countries provide protection via more than one legislation. Thus, due to such differences in the shape of legal protection, the effect can be different based on the diverse approaches that are available and ultimately taken by the national legislator via the different laws. Such diverse options may or may not result in achieving the best interests in terms of protecting the literary and artistic works. The author contends that such discrepancy of legal protection occurs because of the different conditions of such diverse laws, in addition to the impact of the different court’s rulings.
Keywords: title of literary and artistic work, the protection of titles, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, multiplicity of rules.