Faculty of Law lecturer Marc Simon has recently published the book El contrato de transformación de obras de propiedad intelectual, (Contracts for the Transformation of Intellectual Property Works), the result of an update and extension of his doctoral research on transformation rights and the thesis he defended in 2017.

As indicated by the title, the publication deals with the right to use the work of others to make a new one, denominated derivative works by Spanish intellectual property law. “It is of great importance for its practical application when creating translations, film adaptations, musical arrangements, collections, using samples, and so on.” explained the expert.

According to Dr Simon, this right is little addressed in Spanish intellectual property regulations, “despite being a right with an important economic applicability in the cultural and artistic sector.” The aim of the book is to explain the essential elements that govern this right, and its application in the contractual practice of copyright, continued the legal expert. Accordingly, the manual explains the most common assumptions of exploitation of the law, accompanying them with recent examples in the legal case study, and proposing ways of interpreting the issues currently under debate.

The author explained that the book is conceived as a “small reference guide” for all those professionals in the sector who need to ascertain the content of transformation rights before starting a negotiation that affects copyright. “It aims to give a theoretical and practical solution to the problems that the parties of a transformation contract usually encounter,” concluded Dr Simon.

The book will soon be available in the UIC Barcelona library, along with his previous work dedicated to the intellectual property of musical works, Musical Creation and Copyright: Originality, Plagiarism and Digital Technology.