Legal Regulation of Joint Authorship in Russia and Abroad

For works created by joint creative contribution, international legal acts and most national legislations of the world establish the legal regime of joint authorship. In doctrine and court practice there are many disputes concerning the qualification of joint author status. The resolution of such disputes determines whether an individual obtains the status of joint author, and, consequently, the copyright to the work (exclusive right and moral rights). The purpose of the paper is to conduct a systematic and critical analysis of the legal regime of joint authorship in the Russian and foreign countries, to establish the qualifying criteria of joint authorship, to distinguish joint authorship from other forms of cooperation. To achieve the goal the following questions were set: 1) to study the development of the institute of joint authorship in the doctrine, legislation and judicial practice of common law and continental law countries; 2) to study the formation of the legal regime of joint authorship in Russia; 3) to distinguish between joint authorship and other forms of cooperation; 4) to find out objective and subjective criteria of joint authorship; 5) to consider the differences between separate and non-separate joint authorship; 6) to study the procedure of exercising rights by joint authors; 7) to consider the ways of copyright protection by joint authors. As a result of the conducted research, the author concluded that the court should conduct the following test to establish joint authorship. Compliance with the subjective criterion implies the presence of a mutual agreement. Compliance with the objective criterion implies creative nature of the joint authors' labor, jointness of the joint authors' labor, cooperation until the moment of the work promulgation. Thus, to recognize the relation of joint authorship, the court must determine the following circumstances: 1) the existence of a mutual agreement; 2) creative nature of the labor of joint authors; 3) jointness of labor of joint authors; 4) jointness of the labor until the moment of the work promulgation. Failure to meet any of the criteria of the joint authorship test should result in a refusal to recognize joint authorship. The use of such test for joint authorship will allow to create not only uniformity of court practice, but also legal certainty in the regulation of such public relations.