The Nature of Licensing Contracts for Exploiting Copyrights

The author deposits and exploits his works for his own account, as he is considered the original owner of the rights to his intellectual creations. These rights are divided into two types: perpetual moral rights aimed at protecting the creator’s personality and proprietary rights for the exclusive exploitation of his work in the manner and timing he desires. He has the right to dispose of them by transferring them entirely or partially, with or without compensation. Proprietary rights are temporary rights where legal disposition is the direction of the will to create a legal effect, whether this effect is the establishment of a right like a gift, its transfer or modification like renewal, or its termination like discharge. Given the importance of legal disposition, the Qatari legislator addressed the author’s rights in the Intellectual Property Law No. 7 of 2002, stipulating a writing requirement for the contract. The contract must include conditions necessary for its validity, and it is concluded as soon as the parties exchange expressions of matching wills. Article eight states: “The author may transfer any of his financial rights mentioned in this law to another person or persons, provided that the transfer of the right is in writing and explicitly specifies each right disposed of separately, along with specifying the extent, purpose, duration, and place of the transfer.”

Thus, the owner of an intellectual property right has the right to use and exploit this right, and no one else has the right to use it without his permission. Licensing intellectual property rights is, therefore, a permission or license granted by the owner of the intellectual property right to another person to use this right. This person would not be able to use such a right without this license. The license is executed through a contract involving at least two parties: the licensor and the licensee. Through this contract, the licensor grants the licensee the right to use a specific intellectual property right owned by the licensor, as the owner of the intellectual property right has the authority to use what he owns and simultaneously prevent others from using it.