Given the globalization and technological expansion that has occurred internationally and nationally, many people have developed creations of various kinds, including software, platforms, apps, or similar for all types of technological or physical platforms.
These developments, whether in art, music, literature, or software, can be protected through special registrations, which are granted by the National Directorate of Copyright (DNDA). However, the registration of your work, creation, or software with the DNDA is for declarative purposes and not constitutive. Such registration grants you the following:
- Legal certainty to the holders regarding their copyright and related rights.
- Authenticity is guaranteed to intellectual property holders.
- It allows the registration and publicity of the assignment of economic rights over the works.
- It can be used as a determining element in a judicial process.
- It allows the registration and publicity of the change of ownership of the work, or licenses over it.
Likewise, works or software must meet the following general aspects to be registered with the DNDA:
- Have a title for the work or software.
- Verify whether it is unpublished (if it has not been published) or published (if it has already been published), original (if it was an original creation) or derivative (if it was a creation based on a previous work), individual (if only one person participated in its creation) or collective (if it was made by several people under the initiative and direction of a natural or legal person), collaborative (made by two people whose contribution cannot be separated), a translation, and in general any characteristic that may be reported.
- Know the year of creation of the work or software.
- Verify if there has been any assignment of economic rights of the work to a person other than the author. The name or corporate name, as applicable, must be mentioned, evidencing the document through which such rights were acquired.
- For software, the program or source code (without password), user manual (software operation), and description of the work (a detail of the software procedures) must be attached.
- For musical works, the score must be attached, and verify if the work was created by several people, both in its melody and lyrics.
- For literary works, a file with a copy of the work must be attached.
- For artistic works, video, photography, scripts, or storyboards (for choreographies, theatrical works) must be attached.
Once you take into account these general aspects to register your work or software, the respective procedure must be carried out before the National Directorate of Copyright (DNDA) to obtain the effective registration of the work or software.