Copyright on computer software in Bulgaria

Interlegal regular client (Bulgarian shipping company) has developed its own computer software for debugging the company management processes and for making it easier to work upon documents of the flag administrations. The client applied to Interlegal for preventive protection of such software from unauthorized use by third parties.

Computer software is a literary work and is protected by copyright automatically from the moment of its creation. Separate state registration is not required. However, in order to certify indisputability of their rights, authors apply frequently copyright registration: in Ukraine such procedure is prescribed by the law, while both in Bulgaria and the EU the authors do not have such an opportunity.

With regards to such specification, we have drafted a plan for computer software safety in Bulgaria. One of the tools was registration of a trademark in the EU registry (EUIPO). Incorporation of the creator’s name and trademark into computer software facilitates legal presumption of authorship.

It should be noted also that copyright on computer software shall belong to the company in case when software was created by the company employees in the framework of their employment relations or by third-party developers under the Service Agreement. Therefore, in order to protect legal entity’s copyright on software, it is important to have documentary evidence of the grounds for its occurrence.