Author: Hazel Coşkun Baylan
The relationship between the author and the product of their creative activity is protected by moral rights. The moral rights of the author set out in the Intellectual and Artistic Works Act numbered 5846 (“IAWA”) include the authority to disclose the work to the public, the authority to designate the name, the right to prohibit modification and the rights against persons who own or possess the original of a work. The moral rights are strictly bonded personal rights; therefore, they cannot be transferred to any person by the author, but the authority to exercise moral rights can be granted. In this article, the moral rights of the author and the inalienability rule are examined through the decision of the 11th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 4.6.2018 and numbered 2016/11693E. 2018/4232K.
Review of the Decision of the Court of Cassation
A claim for declaration, prevention and prohibition of the infringement of moral rights and trademark rights, as well as a claim for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, was the subject of the decision of the 11th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 4.6.2018 and numbered 2016/11693E. 2018/4232K. In this decision, the plaintiff asserted that he acquired the economic and moral rights of works from the artist, and that his economic, moral, and trademark rights had been infringed by the defendant. The plaintiff stated that he acquired, from the artists who created the work, all the economic and moral rights to eight fine art works in the form of graphic designs displayed on products such as bags, pens, notebooks, and t-shirts.
