We all listen to songs and do not ask ourselves whether the music and lyrics for those are an independent work. What if you have rights to both the music and lyrics for a music work, and someone uses only one of those? How to act in this situation – can you protect the rights for music and lyrics separately?

As always, we receive help from the Court for Intellectual Property (hereinafter – “IPC”). In case No. A65-7070/2016, the IPC indicated that song performers must reimburse for infringing copyright to lyrics. The Court also pointed out that the author of the lyrics and the author of the music are not considered co-authors. The lack of co-authorship affects distribution of remuneration

regarding use of lyrics/music. Generally, compensation is distributed among co-authors in equal shares (Paragraph 2, Item 3 of Article 1229 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Lyrics and music are independent copyright objects, completely different in form. Each work is created through independent creative work of their respective authors.

In this case, different authors created lyrics and music separately. Thus, both lyrics and music are subject to copyright protection.

Conclusion: given the fact that lyrics and music are considered independent works, it is possible to defend them in a body, as well as independently, when only poetry or music was violated.

This article was partly drawn from materials gathered from the following websites: ipcmagazine.ru, garant.ru

Image taken from: yandex.ru

Note that the term “musical work” used in the context of this article refers to a work consisting of music including any accompanying words, as per interpretation of current Russian law.