A natural person-entrepreneur as a party to the contract for the disposal of copyright
Authors: Shtefan Anna 
Published: December 2022

Keywords: disposal of intellectual property rights, legal status of a natural personentrepreneur,subjects of copyright

The possibility of using copyright in the economic activityof an individual entrepreneur and the conclusion by them of agreements on the disposalof copyright is not directly provided by law. Taking into account that the ownersof copyright are only individuals and legal entities, the question of whether an individualentrepreneur may be a party to a contract aimed at the transfer of copyright orgranting permission to use a work, or whether such contracts should be concluded bythem only as a natural person, is relevant. This issue has not received proper doctrinalcoverage and remains almost unexplored. Giving a clear answer to this question isvery important in order to avoid mistakes in the contractual regulation of the relationsand to find out whether the income received as a result of the disposal of copyrightis included in the income of a physical person-entrepreneur.It was determined that the status of an entrepreneur is an additional legal statusof a natural person which is combined with their legal status of a person and a citizen.In economic relations, a natural person acts from the position of an entrepreneur, inany relations outside of entrepreneurship — as a person and a citizen. At the sametime, entering into economic relations, the entrepreneur has all the civil rights previouslyacquired by them as an individual, and continues to acquire new civil rights asan individual, in particular, the copyright for new works. Being the subject of copyrightas a natural person, an entrepreneur can use the corresponding work and disposeof the rights to it as individual entrepreneur without the need for additional documentationof the fact of copyright ownerships, in particular, without concluding anagreement on the transfer of these rights between him/her as a natural person andhim/her as a natural person-entrepreneur. The remuneration received by a naturalperson-entrepreneur as a result of the disposal of copyright in their economic activityis included in their income as a natural person-entrepreneur.A natural person-entrepreneur can alienate copyright on the basis of the relevantcontract, as well as grant permission to other persons to use the work by virtue ofownership of copyright to them as natural persons and without any formalities. Anindividual entrepreneur may obtain permission to use a work from another person onthe basis of a license agreement without any restrictions. The lack of legislative specificationof this aspect gives rise to disputes about how the legal statuses of a naturalperson and a natural person-entrepreneur are combined and interact in economic activitiesrelated to the creation and use of works. In this regard, in the provisions of theEconomic Code and the Civil Code, it is expedient to determine that an individual entrepreneuruses intellectual property rights in their economic activity belonging tothem as individuals and disposes of these rights, including the rights acquired bythem as individuals as a result of the implementation economic activity.