Software copyright registration

Code is protected as a work, not as an invention

A computer program is the original expression, in any form, language or code, of a set of instructions with a given sequence, structure and organisation, intended to make a device perform a specific task (article 101 of the Mexican Federal Copyright Law). It is protected by copyright. It is not patented, and a good deal of time is lost looking for a patent route that does not exist.

Protection covers the code and its documentation. It does not cover the idea, the functionality or the business method. Someone may build a product that does what yours does, provided they wrote their own code.

Software has its own ownership rules

Two of them differ from the rest of copyright, and both work in favour of the company:

• Employees. Where a program and its documentation are created by employees in the exercise of their duties, or following the instructions of the employer, the economic rights belong to the employer unless agreed otherwise (article 103). This is more favourable than the general employment rule, which presumes an equal split (article 84).
• No time limit on the assignment. As an express exception to the five-year default that applies to other works, the term of an assignment of rights in computer programs is not subject to any limitation (articles 103 and 33).

Contractors are the different case. Where the company commissioned the production of the software, the economic rights are the commissioner unless agreed otherwise (article 83) — but whether a given freelance arrangement was a commission, or the licensing of something the developer already had, is exactly the question that gets argued. The written agreement is what removes it.

Why registration matters more here

Software changes weekly and is written by several hands. By the time there is a dispute the question is rarely whether the code is protected, but who owns which version and what existed when. A registration fixes a dated copy with the authority, and it is the exhibit relied on in diligence, in an acquisition, or against a former developer who left with the repository.

What we do

We register the program and its documentation, review who wrote what and under which arrangement, draft the agreements that put the rights where they belong, and advise on what should stay a trade secret instead of being deposited.