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„Legal Aspects of Parody“ and Intellectual Property
Dragan Zlatović
; Šibensko kazalište
Abstract
We have developed a long practice of making mockery of our cultural icons, symbols, public and famous persons. The parody is created when a person imitates a serious work of authorship, such as literary, musical or another work of art with the aim to achieve a humoristic or satiric effect. The parody, as a form of criticism, presents a very popular means among authors, entertainers and advertisers who use it to give a certain message or view, however, it is often used to mark products and services.
Due to the fact that the parody presents a method of criticism, it must be used without exception with another creative endeavor. Therefore, a conflict between the author of the original work being exposed to a parody and the author of a parody is inherently created having in mind no one is fond of being an object of criticism, joke or mockery. Moreover, it is less than probable that parody authors will receive a specific license or authorization from a titular of exclusive legal rights over the work protected by the copyright or trademark to use it when creating a parody, i.e. to parody an already protected trademark.
Therefore, it is necessary to consider conditions under which a certain parody may present a copyright work, that is may insult an already protected trademark. Due to the copyright or trademark tradition, solutions given by national legislation and court practice could vary. It is desirable to set above mentioned conditions by the law as is the case with the recent copyright legislation in Croatia. In case if a parody is not legally regulated as a copyright work, that is if reasons to deny trademark registration or to give court protection in case of trademark infringement are not set by the law, it is a task of court practice to present a solution in each individual disputable case depending on case specifics and copyright and trademark doctrine and cultural fundamental principles.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
52641
URI
Publication date:
10.4.2009.
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