Author rights and copyrights lawyer

Author- and copyrights covers all legal rules, administrative practices and court decisions specific to the subject matter of creations which are protected by intellectual property rights.

Whether from the point of view of an inventor, a license holder or a franchisee using a brand and know-how, this subject therefore includes all the legal aspects relating to creations benefiting from a legal protection regime.

WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL SKILLS OF A LAWYER SPECIALIZED IN AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT?

A lawyer whose practice is dedicated to author’s rights and copyrights will first be familiar with the legal rules applicable to this matter (laws, royal decrees, etc.). He will be able to advise his clients on the legal aspects of exploiting his creations, analyze the possible protection options, take care of the procedures applicable in the event of special circumstances (license, sale, etc.).

He will also have knowledge of the administrative rules and practices specific to this matter, given the existence of various players in the sector (OPI, Sabam, etc.).

Finally, a lawyer specialized in copyrights will also have experience of courts and tribunals, which can be decisive in the event of a dispute because theory is one thing, but the practice of law before the courts requires the knowledge of legal procedures, jurisprudential inclinations and many other aspects which can only be learned by practicing a subject for a prolonged period of time.

HOW TO VERIFY THE COMPETENCE OF A LAWYER IN AUTHOR RIGHTS AND COPYRIGHTS?

The official title of “specialist” granted by the Bar Association may be a relevant criterion to help with your research. However, many lawyers do not complete the formalities required to obtain this title, so this criterion alone will not suffice. This is the reason why there is much more reference to a preferred area of expertise in practice than to a specialization. Almost all lawyers practice a preferential area while far fewer are those who have satisfied the formalities to be able to avail themselves of the official title of specialist.

Therefore, determining whether a lawyer is specialized or rather expert in his area requires being able to decipher the codes of the industry. As often when there is no real organized and generalized standard, it will be necessary to proceed by bundle of clues as far as the information is accessible, which in practice is often problematic.

Indeed, an expert will be recognizable by a university specialization, by his scientific activities, by his participation in working committees, by university mandates, by his years of practice, by the opinion of his clients, etc. It will be the addition of these different criteria that can adequately inform the client.

However, some of this information is confidential, some unavailable or scattered and this makes the task difficult.

THE SOLUTION? AN OBJECTIVE AND RELIABLE RATING OF LAWYERS AND THE SHARING OF CLIENTS’ EXPERIENCES

This opacity, whether voluntary or not, creates a real problem of access to lawyers and contributes to the idea that this lack of transparency is “organized” by the profession. This would be going too fast because the lawyer is bound by deontological rules which oblige lawyers to keep their information confidential, not to reveal the name of their client, etc.

This is the reason why an innovative solution was needed. uLaw has therefore developed a unique algorithm that provides reliable scoring of legal profiles. uLaw gathers the various objective and confidential information specific to the lawyer to derive a score, supplemented by the opinions of client users of the platform. This “composite” rating not only ensures visibility of the lawyer’s technical skills, evaluated by uLaw, but also of his human and commercial competence, which is assessed by his former clients.