Guidance

Copyright is obtained automatically, at the time it appears in some material form, i.e. it has been writen, audio recorded, recorded in any way by electronic or other means and provided that the said object is original. An original work is the personal intellectual creation and not an imitation of an existing work or draft work.

Consequently, obtaining and exercising copyright in the Republic of Cyprus does not require its registration to a register nor the renewal of its protection.

The owner of the intellectual property rights in the Republic of Cyprus is the creator, the licensor or the holder of the exclusive rights licence.

Copyright, provided that it meets the prerequisites, provides to the beneficiary the exclusive right to exploit the work. A corresponding right of exploitation is provided to the beneficiaries of a neighbouring right.

For further information, you can refer to the page Understanding.

To ensure the protection of your copyright, you can use the symbol © on your relevant work, together with your full name and the time of creation of the said work.

It would also be good practice to keep record of your or your legal representative’s contact details, the basic terms of your copyright's licence of use, the identity of the people who contributed to your work, and all documents, in electronic or other form, showing when the work was created.

Finally, you can also register with a copyright collective management organisation, in order to represent you and collect on your behalf the relevant rights of use of your work.