Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

Marginal note:Execution of instruments

• 58 (1) Any assignment of a copyright, or any licence granting an interest in a copyright, may be executed, subscribed or acknowledged at any place in a treaty country, a Rome Convention country or a WPPT country by the assignor, licensor or secured or hypothecary debtor, before any notary public, commissioner or other official, or the judge of any court, who is authorized by law to administer oaths or certify documents in that place and who also subscribes their signature and affixes to, or impresses on, the assignment or licence their official seal or the seal of the court of which they are a judge.

• Marginal note:Execution of instruments

  (2) Any assignment of copyright, or any licence granting an interest in a copyright, may be executed, subscribed or acknowledged by the assignor, licensor or mortgagor, in any other foreign country before any notary public, commissioner or other official or the judge of any court of the foreign country, who is authorized to administer oaths or perform notarial acts in that foreign country and whose authority shall be proved by the certificate of a diplomatic or consular officer of Canada performing their functions in that foreign country.

• Marginal note:Seals to be evidence

  (3) The official seal or seal of the court or the certificate of a diplomatic or consular officer is evidence of the execution of the instrument, and the instrument with the seal or certificate affixed or attached thereto is admissible as evidence in any action or proceeding brought under this Act without further proof.

• Marginal note:Other testimony

  (4) The provisions of subsections (1) and (2) shall be deemed to be permissive only, and the execution of any assignment of copyright, or any licence granting an interest in a copyright, may in any case be proved in accordance with the applicable rules of evidence.

Fees

Marginal note:Fees regulations

59 The Governor in Council may make regulations

• (a) prescribing fees, or the manner of determining fees, to be paid for anything required or authorized to be done in the administration of this Act; and

• (b) prescribing the time and manner in which the fees must be paid.

PART VIMiscellaneous Provisions

Substituted Right

Marginal note:Subsistence of substituted right

• 60 (1) Where any person is immediately before January 1, 1924 entitled to any right in any work that is set out in column I of Schedule I, or to any interest in such a right, he is, as from that date, entitled to the substituted right set out in column II of that Schedule, or to the same interest in the substituted right, and to no other right or interest, and the substituted right shall subsist for the term for which it would have subsisted if this Act had been in force at the date when the work was made, and the work had been one entitled to copyright thereunder.

• Marginal note:Where author has assigned the right

  (2) Where the author of any work in which any right that is set out in column I of Schedule I subsists on January 1, 1924 has, before that date, assigned the right or granted any interest therein for the whole term of the right, then at the date when, but for the passing of this Act, the right would have expired, the substituted right conferred by this section shall, in the absence of express agreement, pass to the author of the work, and any interest therein created before January 1, 1924 and then subsisting shall determine, but the person who immediately before the date at which the right would have expired was the owner of the right or interest is entitled at his option either

  • (a) on giving such notice as is hereinafter mentioned, to an assignment of the right or the grant of a similar interest therein for the remainder of the term of the right for such consideration as, failing agreement, may be determined by arbitration, or

  • (b) without any assignment or grant, to continue to reproduce or perform the work in like manner as theretofore subject to the payment, if demanded by the author within three years after the date at which the right would have expired, of such royalties to the author as, failing agreement, may be determined by arbitration, or, where the work is incorporated in a collective work and the owner of the right or interest is the proprietor of that collective work, without any payment,

  and the notice referred to in paragraph (a) must be given not more than one year or less than six months before the date at which the right would have expired, and must be sent by registered post to the author, or, if he cannot with reasonable diligence be found, advertised in the Canada Gazette.

• Marginal note:Definition of author

  (3) For the purposes of this section, author includes the legal representatives of a deceased author.

• Marginal note:Works made before this Act in force

  (4) Subject to this Act, copyright shall not subsist in any work made before January 1, 1924 otherwise than under and in accordance with the provisions of this section.

Clerical Errors

Marginal note:Clerical errors do not invalidate

61 Clerical errors in any instrument of record in the Copyright Office do not invalidate the instrument, but they may be corrected under the authority of the Registrar of Copyrights.

Regulations

Marginal note:Regulations

• 62 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations

  • (a) for the purposes of paragraph 30.01(6)(d), respecting measures, which may vary according to circumstances specified in the regulations;

  • (b) for the purposes of paragraph 30.02(3)(d), respecting measures, which may vary according to circumstances specified in the regulations;

  • (c) prescribing the form of a notice of claimed infringement referred to in section 41.25 and prescribing the information that must be and that is not permitted to be contained in it;

  • (d) prescribing anything that by this Act is to be prescribed by regulation; and

  • (e) generally for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act.

• Marginal note:Rights saved

  (2) The Governor in Council may make orders for altering, revoking or varying any order in council made under this Act, but any order made under this section does not affect prejudicially any rights or interests acquired or accrued at the date when the order comes into operation, and shall provide for the protection of those rights and interests.

Industrial Designs and Topographies

63 [Repealed, 1997, c. 24, s. 38]

Marginal note:Interpretation

• 64 (1) In this section and section 64.1,

  article

  article means any thing that is made by hand, tool or machine; (objet)

  design

  design means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament and any combination of those features that, in a finished article, appeal to and are judged solely by the eye; (dessin)

  useful article

  useful article means an article that has a utilitarian function and includes a model of any such article; (objet utilitaire)

  utilitarian function

  utilitarian function, in respect of an article, means a function other than merely serving as a substrate or carrier for artistic or literary matter. (fonction utilitaire)

• Marginal note:Non-infringement re certain designs

  (2) Where copyright subsists in a design applied to a useful article or in an artistic work from which the design is derived and, by or under the authority of any person who owns the copyright in Canada or who owns the copyright elsewhere,

  • (a) the article is reproduced in a quantity of more than fifty, or

  • (b) where the article is a plate, engraving or cast, the article is used for producing more than fifty useful articles,

  it shall not thereafter be an infringement of the copyright or the moral rights for anyone

  • (c) to reproduce the design of the article or a design not differing substantially from the design of the article by

    • (i) making the article, or

    • (ii) making a drawing or other reproduction in any material form of the article, or

  • (d) to do with an article, drawing or reproduction that is made as described in paragraph (c) anything that the owner of the copyright has the sole right to do with the design or artistic work in which the copyright subsists.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (3) Subsection (2) does not apply in respect of the copyright or the moral rights in an artistic work in so far as the work is used as or for

  • (a) a graphic or photographic representation that is applied to the face of an article;

  • (b) a trademark or a representation thereof or a label;

  • (c) material that has a woven or knitted pattern or that is suitable for piece goods or surface coverings or for making wearing apparel;

  • (d) an architectural work that is a building or a model of a building;

  • (e) a representation of a real or fictitious being, event or place that is applied to an article as a feature of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament;

  • (f) articles that are sold as a set, unless more than fifty sets are made; or

  • (g) such other work or article as may be prescribed by regulation.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (4) Subsections (2) and (3) apply only in respect of designs created after the coming into force of this subsection, and section 64 of this Act and the Industrial Design Act, as they read immediately before the coming into force of this subsection, as well as the rules made under them, continue to apply in respect of designs created before that coming into force.

Marginal note:Non-infringement re useful article features

• 64.1 (1) The following acts do not constitute an infringement of the copyright or moral rights in a work:

  • (a) applying to a useful article features that are dictated solely by a utilitarian function of the article;

  • (b) by reference solely to a useful article, making a drawing or other reproduction in any material form of any features of the article that are dictated solely by a utilitarian function of the article;

  • (c) doing with a useful article having only features described in paragraph (a), or with a drawing or reproduction made as described in paragraph (b), anything that the owner of the copyright has the sole right to do with the work; and

  • (d) using any method or principle of manufacture or construction.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) Nothing in subsection (1) affects

  • (a) the copyright, or

  • (b) the moral rights, if any,

  in any sound recording, cinematograph film or other contrivance by means of which a work may be mechanically reproduced or performed.

Marginal note:Application of Act to topographies

• 64.2 (1) This Act does not apply, and shall be deemed never to have applied, to any topography or to any design, however expressed, that is intended to generate all or part of a topography.

• Marginal note:Computer programs

  (2) For greater certainty, the incorporation of a computer program into an integrated circuit product or the incorporation of a work into such a computer program may constitute an infringement of the copyright or moral rights in a work.

• Marginal note:Definitions

  (3) In this section, “topography” and “integrated circuit product” have the same meaning as in the Integrated Circuit Topography Act.

65 [Repealed, 1993, c. 44, s. 69]

PART VIICopyright Board

Marginal note:Establishment

• 66 (1) There is established a Board to be known as the Copyright Board, consisting of not more than five members, including a Chair and a Vice-chair, to be appointed by the Governor in Council.

• Marginal note:Service

  (2) The members of the Board shall be appointed to serve either full-time or part-time.

• Marginal note:Chair

  (3) The Chair must be a judge, either sitting or retired, of a superior court.

• Marginal note:Tenure

  (4) Each member of the Board shall hold office during good behaviour for a term not exceeding five years, but may be removed at any time by the Governor in Council for cause.

• Marginal note:Re-appointment

  (5) A member of the Board is eligible to be re-appointed once only.

• Marginal note:Prohibition

  (6) A member of the Board shall not be employed in the public service within the meaning of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act during the member’s term of office.

• Marginal note:Members deemed public service employees

  (7) A full-time member of the Board, other than the Chair, is deemed to be employed in

  • (a) the public service for the purposes of the Public Service Superannuation Act; and

  • (b) the federal public administration for the purposes of any regulations made pursuant to section 9 of the Aeronautics Act.

Marginal note:Duties of Chair

• 66.1 (1) The Chair shall direct the work of the Board and apportion its work among its members.

• Marginal note:Absence or incapacity of Chair

  (2) If the Chair is absent or incapacitated or if the office of Chair is vacant, the Vice-chair has all the powers and functions of the Chair during the absence, incapacity or vacancy.

• Marginal note:Duties of Vice-chair

  (3) The Vice-chair is the chief executive officer of the Board and has supervision over and direction of the Board and its staff.