Civil Protection of Rights contiguous to Author’s Royalty in Iraqi Law A comparative study

Abstract

Recently, intellectual property is characterized by legal protection at the national and international levels due to its great legal and economic value. Although protecting copyrights is originally related to the protection of royalty and patent rights, but there is a group of rights that are also worthy of protection. These rights are ‘rights contiguous to author’s royalty’, which are neither completely separated from royalty nor merged with it. Rather, they are both connected by the framework of intellectual property and the goal of spreading intellectual creativity in contemporary society. Figuratively speaking, ‘contiguous’ means the existence of common and similar features with copyright.

Rights contiguous to the author’s royalty is divided according to the International Convention of Protecting Performers, Producers of Phonograms and the Broadcasting Organization of 1961 (Rome Convention) into three rights. They are rights of performers, rights of producers of phonograms, and rights of broadcasting organizations. Furthermore, the Iraqi legislator organized these rights in the Iraqi Copyright Protection Law No. 3 of 1971 under the Coalition Provisional Judiciary Law No. (83) of 2004.