Research On Copyright Protection Scope Of Architectural Works

The Protection of architectural works has went through a hard and long process,which could be fully reflected in the three different versions of Berne Convention.Although the protection of “sketches and three-dimensional works relative toarchitecture” is expressly stipulated in Berne Convention, the concept of“architectural works” had not come into being until1908. In China, copyright lawwas first published in1991, and by that time “works of architectural” had been listedas one of the subjects of copyright law by many countries around the world, and havegained acceptance by practice in protecting works of architectural. However, forlacking relative domestic judicial practices and theoretical basis, as well as beingafraid of breaking principle of “no copyright protection extended to any functionembodied in any work”, the copyright protection of architectural work has also wentthrough a period of none protection to sound protection.This thesis discusses fundamental issues about architectural work, includingessence of architectural work, copyright protection scope, and constitutiverequirements. Only by deeply understanding these issues, can we solve disputes injudicial practice. This thesis is divided into four parts, as following:Chapter one explores the reasons of protecting architectural works as anindividual copyright subject matter by studying the history of amending copyright lawin America and China. Chapter two analyzes the essence of architectural works. Firstly, this chapterintroduces various views of scope of architectural works; secondly, this chapteranalyzes the legal characters of three kinds of architectural works; then, discusses theway of express and express protected by architectural work; at last, make a conclusionabout suggested scope of architectural works.Chapter three makes further analysis about the constitutive requirements ofarchitectural works based on the conclusion of chapter two.Chapter four puts forwards to legislation advice in accordance with domesticsituation, and explains the way to use the legislation advice in practice. It mainlyincludes two aspects: one is the judgment standards about creativity, the other isreplicability issues.This thesis is completed during the process of amending copyright law for thethird time. According to the published second version of amendment script, we canidentify that some articles related to architectural works have been modified, whichsolves the logic problem in theory frame and lays a positive role in guiding judicialpractices.