Copyright protection
Copyright is intended to protect ideas. Because ideas cannot be protected in a general sense ("thoughts are free") only the actual product of the mental work, the work itself, is protected.
The author, that is, the creator of a work of literature, science, or art is protected in his author’s rights pursuant to Article 1 of the German Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz – UrhG) against the commercial exploitation of his intellectual property by third parties. The object of the protection is the work itself. The scope of copyright includes literary works, musical works, cinematographic works, or photographic works (Section 2, Copyright Act).
Copyright protection accrues already with the author’s creation of the work. It does not require any registration. The scope of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 includes “devices designed to facilitate the circumvention of technological measures". These are products that, in the normal course of their operation, prevent or restrict acts in respect of works, which are not authorised by the holder of any copyright or any right related to copyright, and which relate to an act infringing those rights. The customs administration is therefore empowered to withdraw any devices (such as the so-called "slot cards") designed for the circumvention of a copy protection from the market.
Unlike trade marks, patents, utility models and so on, copyright is not a form of protection of industrial property rights because this kind of protection exists only in association with a commercial application and/or economic use of the property right.
Many businesses have already submitted applications for action law by the customs authorities under copyright law.
