Le CEIPI aura le plaisir d'accueillir le 22 mars prochain à 14h00, le Professeur Marsnik pour un séminaire sur le thème “The U.S. Work for Hire Doctrine in a Global Context, A way forward?”
En raison du nombre de places limité, nous vous prions de bien vouloir confirmer votre participation auprès de Luc Desaunettes (l.desaunettes@ceipi.edu).
The U.S. Work for Hire Doctrine in a Global Context:
A way forward?
U.S. copyright law mandates the employer is both the author and owner of any work created by an employee within the scope of employment. This “work for hire” doctrine extends to categories of copyrighted works created by independent contractors. Moral rights do not provide relief to these individuals. Since the U.S. became a contracting state to the Berne Convention, it has allowed moral rights to be freely alienated or waived under Federal law. These two factors conflict with the legal environment for authorship in many countries. Given the territoriality of intellectual property laws, the differing approaches to authorship and ownership become problematic in the context of global work forces. If a multinational company hires individuals in Boston, Berlin and Bangalore to contribute to a copyrighted work, who may claim authorship? How is ownership of the work secured? This research explores the differing approaches to facilitate managing copyright ownership and authorship in a globally distributed work environment.
Short CV:
Susan J. Marsnik is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Ethics and Business Law at the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas (Minneapolis, MN). She holds a J.D. from the University of Minnesota School of Law. Professor Marsnik’s primary area of research focuses on public and private international law by analyzing U.S. intellectual property law in the context of international and foreign laws. Her work has been published in law and business journals, books, encyclopedias and in corporate compliance and profession legal education programs. In 2013, she received the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Hoeber Memorial Award for Excellence in Research. She has taught in specialized graduate programs at European universities and as a Fulbright Specialist at Beni Suef University in Egypt. In 2015, she was honored by the British Association of Law Teachers with a life time achievement award for “Contributions to Legal Education.” Prior to her academic career, Professor Marsnik practiced law with a boutique firm in Minneapolis. She also has over a decade of other experience including a career in the book publishing industry and as a consultant on law practice management and comparative law issues.
