Acta Iuris Stetinensis

The Act on copyright and related rights lists two types of agreements relating author’s economic rights: the copyright transfer agreement and the license agreement. The differences between the copyright transfer agreement and the exclusive license agreement are not clear, mainly due to the fact that there is doubt as to the nature of the latter, namely, whether it has a disposition or only obligation effect. It is obvious that the license agreement creates a legal relationship of a permanent nature, as opposed to the copyright transfer agreement in which the performance of the seller is of a one-off nature. In the practice of trading it is assumed as acceptable to conclude copyright transfer agreements for a period of time specified in advance. Reserving a final date in contracts obliging to continuous and periodical performances does not raise doubt. Reserving a final date in agreements obliging to one-off performances significantly modifies the civil law relationship created by the parties. The paper presents an analysis of the author’s economic copyright transfer agreement for a contractually limited period of time, in the context of its compliance with competence standards contained in civil law and copyright law. The paper makes reference to the rules of interpretation of declarations of will contained in Art. 65 par. 2 of the Civil Code, the interpretation rule arising from Art. 65 of the copyright law and compliance of the purpose and content of the agreement with the property (nature) of a civil law relationship. Translated by Joanna Szyjewska–Bagińska