Yacht keel and copyright – an unusual pair

Copyright law is often associated only with the artistic industry. The first things that come to mind are songwriters, screenwriters, or authors of books. 

However, this law has a broader, often overlooked scope of application. It plays an important, sometimes quite problematic, role also in the maritime industry and the yacht manufacturing sector. 

For example – who holds the copyright to a yacht’s keel? The project commissioner, the architect, or the shipyard that turns the design into a tangible product? 

Copyright to a yacht’s keel – who owns it?

The Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act clearly states that copyright belongs to the creator of the work. A work is defined as a manifestation of creative activity that has an individual character, is established in any form, regardless of its value, purpose, or manner of expression. 

In the production of a yacht’s keel, with three parties involved: 

• the client commissioning the design and production of the keel,
• the architect who prepares the design,
• and the shipyard that brings the design to life, 

the architect is considered the creator under copyright law. Therefore, the architect will hold both economic and moral copyrights. 

If the architect (the creator) is employed under an employment contract, the employer will acquire the economic rights to the work within the limits defined by the employment agreement. 

Thus, if the client wishes to use the keel design without infringing anyone’s rights, they should sign an agreement in which the architect transfers all economic copyrights to them. 

Provisions in the agreement 

This means that in the contract for designing the yacht’s keel, the provisions for the transfer of all economic copyrights and related rights to the client should be included. The safest moment for the transfer of these rights is when the project is handed over to the client. Additionally, it is worth including a clause stating that the creator authorizes the client to exercise their moral rights, and the creator agrees not to exercise those rights. 

With such an agreement in place, the client will reduce the risk of a conflict with the creator of the keel design and will be able to freely dispose of the project, allowing the shipyard to build the yacht’s keel and ultimately the finished vessel.