Copyright is an automatic consequence of the creative work, which belongs to the designer in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of artistic creation and the copyright based on it, which is regulated in more detail by the current valid copyright law (Copyright and Related Rights Act).

Copyright arises from the moment of creation of the copyright work and belongs to the author by virtue of the creation of the copyright work itself. Neither the work of copyright nor copyright itself needs to be registered or otherwise formally notified. What is important for its existence is that the copyright work is externally perceptible, that it manifests itself in a certain medium. The moment of public disclosure is very important for copyright work, because from that point onwards, the copyright work is protected differently.

Copyright gives the author a number of rights, the most important of which are moral and economic rights, which are expressed externally in the form of moral and material copyright.

While the author most often “cashes in” theireconomic rights and transfers them to third parties for a fee (e.g. clients, customers, employer, etc.), they retainthe moral rights , as they are non-transferable and inalienable and must be respected by everyone (including the client).

The essence of copyright is the author’s monopoly over the exploitation of their work. No one may use a protected copyright work without the consent of the author or copyright (economic right) owner.

Copyright protection is limited in time and lasts for the duration of the author’s life and for their heirs for 70 years after their death.

The author can only be the natural person who created the work. Legal entities cannot be authors, but they can be holders of material copyright or other rights, which means that the rights have been transferred to them by a transaction or by operation of law – i.e. by transfer.

Slovenian copyright law is one of the continental European copyright systems, based on the author as a natural person and copyright as a human right, which is based on natural law, so that it gives rise to absolute moral and property rights.

Which work is considered copyright is one of the fundamental questions of copyright law (it is a legal standard), the answer to which must be found on a case-by-case basis and, in the event of a dispute, is always determined by the courts.