Copyright attorney
Your works have value. We protect it.
Law firm specialized in copyright and neighboring rights (CPI Articles L.111-1 et seq.). Protection of works, assignment and licensing, infringement actions, defense of performers and producers in Paris and Brussels.
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Alexandre Bigot-Joly
Partner
Music law, influence, media, communications & criminal law. Lecturer at CELSA, ISCOM and ESP.
Raphaël Molina
Partner
Intellectual property, business law, criminal law & influencer law. Contributor to the 2023 influencer legislation.
Maria Berrada
Partner
Intellectual property, AI, Web3, GDPR, digital criminal law & eSports. Legal counsel for the French Video Game Federation.
Our services
How we can help you.
Practical examples
Infringement action for unauthorized photograph reproduction
A professional photographer found 150 of their images used without authorization on an e-commerce site. €45,000 in damages was obtained and immediate cessation of exploitation secured.
Protection of SaaS software source code
A startup discovered a former developer had reused their source code to create a competing product. Precedence was proved through blockchain timestamping and a judicial injunction with penalty payments obtained.
Client reviews
What our clients say about us.
“Great responsiveness from all team members, with solutions found quickly and efficiently.”
Christ C.
“We entrusted INFLUXIO with a complex case. Their technical expertise, strategic vision and the quality of their legal briefs were decisive.”
Mia-Line C.
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Insights
Learn more about this area.
What is copyright?
Copyright is a set of legal rules within intellectual property aimed at protecting creations of the mind, whether literary, artistic, musical, or graphic. It grants the author moral and economic rights, allowing them to control the exploitation of their work, benefit from compensation for its use, and protect against unfair competition and counterfeiting.
As copyright attorneys, we assist you in managing your copyright assignments and advise you on the best strategies to protect your creations. In case of copyright litigation, our firm intervenes to stop any infringement of your intellectual property. If you believe a party is infringing on your rights, we implement tailored legal solutions to achieve optimal results.
Our expertise also covers obtaining damages in case of rights violation. In terms of protection strategy, we develop custom solutions adapted to your needs. Whether to protect your works of the mind or to defend your rights, we are here to represent you at every step.
Areas of application of copyright.
Literature and publishing.
Copyright applies to all literary works, whether novels, poetry, or essays. This dimension has become even more important with the emergence of new technologies. We help you protect your writings and enforce your rights in literature and publishing.
Music, performances, and audiovisual.
Performers and producers also enjoy moral and economic rights over their respective performances and productions. We also intervene in music. Copyrights are generally managed by specialized civil societies, such as SACEM, which collect rights and redistribute them to artists based on the use of their works.
We also intervene in music, performances, and audiovisual to protect artists' and producers' rights. We assist you in drafting production, distribution, or performance contracts.
Applied arts, visual arts, and photography.
Visual works such as paintings, sculptures, or photographs are also protected by copyright. We assist you in protecting your artistic creations and valuing your visual heritage. To protect aesthetic creations, automatic copyright protection and reinforced protection through design filing are commonly used.
Software and digital innovations.
Software and digital innovations are subject to copyright to protect the intellectual property of their creators. We advise you on best practices for protecting your technological innovations and enforcing your rights in the digital field.
Exceptions.
Certain uses of recent works may be exempt from rights, such as private use within the family circle. For example, recording a television program for personal use does not constitute a copyright violation. There is also a special right providing similar protection to copyright for persons not considered authors of a work: neighboring rights.
Our firm also assists clients in managing their neighboring rights exploitation.
Our services as a copyright law firm.
Personalized legal advice.
Our team of specialized copyright management attorneys offers personalized legal support to guide you in protecting your artistic, literary, or other creations. We analyze your situation and advise you on the best strategies to protect your copyrights.
Contract drafting and negotiation.
Our attorneys draft and negotiate all copyright-related contracts, such as publishing contracts, rights assignment, or licensing. We ensure your interests are protected and that you receive fair compensation for the use of your works by conducting negotiations with you.
Litigation and dispute management.
In case of litigation or copyright violation, our experienced team intervenes to defend your interests. We handle all stages of litigation, from cease-and-desist to court representation, in order to effectively protect our clients' rights in artistic and literary property matters.
Assistance for rights transfer and assignment.
We assist you in drafting and negotiating copyright assignment contracts, whether in the context of succession, sale, or licensing. We ensure your rights are properly transferred while preserving your intellectual property.
Rights assignment, exceptions and ownership.
Mastering copyright requires rigorous assignment contracts and a fine knowledge of legal exceptions. Our firm secures your author contracts, your co-production agreements and your exploitation policies to preserve your economic and moral rights.
Mandatory mentions of a rights assignment.
Article L.131-3 of the IP Code requires any assignment to be evidenced in writing and to mention separately each assigned right, its scope, destination, place and duration of exploitation. Failing this, the assignment is null.
Remuneration must in principle be proportional to revenues (IP Code L.131-4), except in limitatively listed cases (lump sum possible where the basis of evaluation cannot be determined, ancillary contribution, etc.).
Exceptions to the author's monopoly.
IP Code L.122-5 limitatively lists exceptions: private copy, short quotation, press review, parody, educational exception, exception for libraries and archives, panorama exception (Digital Republic Act 2016). Directive (EU) 2019/790 added exceptions for text and data mining and for cross-border digital teaching. The three-step test frames their application.
Collective, collaborative and composite works.
The IP Code distinguishes three regimes: the collaborative work belongs jointly to the co-authors (IP Code L.113-3); the composite work belongs solely to the author who created it, subject to pre-existing rights (L.113-4); the collective work belongs to the promoter who edits and discloses it under its name (L.113-5).
The qualification has decisive consequences on ownership, exploitation and revenue sharing.
AI training, generative content and authorship.
The rise of generative AI raises unprecedented copyright challenges.
EU Directive 2019/790 created two text-and-data-mining exceptions (Articles 3 and 4, transposed by Articles L. 122-5-3 IPC), but Article 4 allows rightholders to opt out — a mechanism reinforced by Article 53 of the AI Act (Regulation EU 2024/1689) which obliges general-purpose AI providers to publish a sufficiently detailed summary of training data. The first court rulings (US Andersen v.
Stability AI, NYT v. OpenAI; Germany LAION ruling of 27 September 2024) draw the contours of permitted use. In France, the Court of Cassation has consistently held since the Painer ruling (CJEU C-145/10, 1 December 2011) that originality requires a personal imprint of the author — currently incompatible with purely AI-generated output (CSPLA report of 27 January 2024).
Opt-out mechanisms and rightholder reservations.
We implement machine-readable opt-outs (robots.txt, ai.txt, TDMRep protocol of W3C) and contractual carve-outs in licensing agreements. We also draft cease-and-desist letters to AI providers using protected works without authorisation.
Hybrid works: human + AI co-creation.
Where a human contributes creative choices (prompts, curation, post-editing), copyright may apply to the human contribution. We advise creators on documenting their creative process to secure protection.
Useful glossary in copyright law.
- Moral right
- perpetual, inalienable, imprescriptible and unseizable prerogative of the author (Article L.121-1 CPI) on authorship and integrity of the work, enforceable even after assignment of economic rights.
- Economic rights
- reproduction and performance rights (Article L.122-1 CPI), assignable, lasting throughout the author's life plus 70 years post mortem (Article L.123-1 CPI).
- e-Soleau
- digital Soleau envelope filed with INPI, conferring certified date on a creation (€1 to €15 per filing), admissible as prima facie evidence of priority.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
For a work to be protectable by copyright, it must present an original character and be fixed in a material medium. Our Paris-based law firm handles your case and helps determine if your work meets these criteria.
A copyright attorney plays an essential role in protecting works and intellectual creations. They advise creators on managing their rights, ensure legal compliance during publication or distribution, and intervene in case of violations or disputes.
In case of copyright violation, our firm undertakes various actions such as sending a cease-and-desist, filing a complaint, or initiating court proceedings, particularly for seizure-counterfeiting. Our team accompanies you through all stages of the process.
In France, economic rights last 70 years after the author's death (Article L.123-1 of the CPI). For collaborative works, this period runs from the death of the last surviving co-author. Moral rights are perpetual and imprescriptible.
An assignment contract must expressly mention each assigned right, its scope (territory), duration, purpose (authorized media and uses), and author compensation, which must in principle be proportional (Articles L.131-3 and L.131-4 of the CPI). The Court of Cassation regularly recalls that any global assignment of future works is void (art.
L.131-1 CPI) and that the assignment of the right of adaptation does not include the right of reproduction (Cass. 1st civ., 7 March 2006, No. 04-12.932, known as the 'Perrier ruling'). Each assigned right must be the subject of a separate mention.
Yes. The wartime extensions (prorogations de guerre), stemming from laws of 1919 and 1951, extend the protection period by 6 years and 152 days for works affected by World War I, and by 8 years and 120 days for those of World War II. Additionally, for authors who 'died for France', a further 30-year extension is provided (Law of 22 August 1985).
Online plagiarism can be combated through several complementary avenues. Upstream, establishing proof of creation date (e-Soleau deposit, bailiff's report) allows establishing priority. If plagiarism is detected, notification to the host under the LCEN or DSA allows rapid takedown.
If amicable removal fails, a counterfeiting action before the judicial tribunal allows obtaining cessation of the infringement and compensation for damages.
Copyright (Articles L.111-1 et seq. of the French IP Code) protects the author of the original work: writer, composer, screenwriter, photographer. Neighboring rights, governed by Articles L.211-1 et seq., protect performers (singers, musicians, actors), producers of phonograms and videograms, and audiovisual communication companies. Their duration is 50 to 70 years depending on the case.
INFLUXIO operates across both regimes, which are complementary in the exploitation chain of musical and audiovisual works.
No. Under French law (Article L.111-1 IP Code), the author remains the rights holder, even when employed. An express written assignment specifying each right transferred, its scope, duration and remuneration is required (Article L.131-3 IP Code). One notable exception: software created by an employee in the course of their duties belongs automatically to the employer (Article L.113-9 IP Code).
For journalists, the 2009 Hadopi Act introduced a specific regulated assignment regime.
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In short
INFLUXIO is a law firm specialized in copyright, based in Paris. Protection of original works, assignments, publishing contracts, counterfeiting, neighboring rights, exploitation and licensing.
Response within 24 hours.
