As of 1 April 2021, the Patent Office performs certain practical tasks in the field of copyright and related rights.
These tasks are listed below.
- To fulfil the role of the mediator for the status of orphan works in Estonia, i.e, to act as the competent authority under Article 3(5) of Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council.
The competent authority essentially has two tasks. Upon receiving information about a work recognised as an orphan work from a public memory institution or the Estonian Public Broadcasting, the competent authority transmits this information to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) database. If it is later confirmed that the rights to a work or phonogram recognised as an orphan work belong to a rights holder, the competent authority transmits this information to the orphan works database maintained by EUIPO.
In 2024, Estonia did not register any orphan works in the EUIPO database.
- To exercise state supervision over the activities of collective management organisations (CMOs), ensuring compliance with the requirements stated in Chapter IX of the Copyright Act.
Chapter IX of the Copyright Act regulates the collective exercise of rights and subchapter 3 of the chapter includes provisions for state supervision over the activities of CMOs. Chapter IX of the Copyright Act also specifies the requirements for CMOs and their activities. Among other things, the use of the revenue from exercising rights and distribution of the revenue between the holders of the rights, the terms and conditions for concluding contracts with users (including the establishment of reasonable tariffs), and providing information from CMOs to the holders of rights, as well as to users and to the general public on the exercise of these rights (including the submission of a transparency report and the disclosure of information on a website) are regulated. Most of the requirements the compliance with which is subject to state supervision arise from Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council.
In January 2024, the Patent Office conducted monitoring on the websites of CMOs (the Estonian Actors’ Union and the Estonian Film Industry Cluster) on the basis of § 7915 and §7926 of the Copyright Act. The Patent Office verified whether the CMOs have disclosed and kept up-to-date the following information:
1) the statute of the organisation and documents approved on the basis of the statute with information arising from subsection 1 of § 791 and subsections 1 and 2 of § 792 of the Copyright Act;
2) standard licence agreements and standard applicable tariffs, including discounts;
3) details of the members of the management board;
4) general policy on distribution of amounts due to rightholders;
5) general policy on determination of management fees;
6) general policy on deductions, other than in respect of management fees, from rights revenue or from any income arising from the investment of rights revenue;
7) a list of the representation agreements it has entered into, and the names of the collective management organisations with which those representation agreements have been concluded;
8) general policy on the use of non-distributable amounts;
9) complaint submission and dispute resolution procedures available as specified in subsections 2–4 of § 871 of the Copyright Act and other acts;
10) a transparency report prepared on the basis of subsection 1 of § 7916 of the Copyright Act and approved by the general meeting.
The Patent Office identified some shortcomings in the disclosure or keeping up-to-date of this information and sent emails to the CMOs about these deficiencies. The Patent Office did not receive any complaints about the activities of the CMOs, therefore no state supervision was carried out.
- To organise the work of the Copyright Committee.
The Copyright Committee was formed at the Patent Office on 1 April 2021. The committee is a conciliation body within the meaning of § 19 of the Conciliation Act and carries out the tasks listed in clauses 1–5 of subsection 1 of § 87 of the Copyright Act, for example, resolving disputes related to copyright and other related rights by conciliation of the parties.
In 2024, the Copyright Committee received four requests, with proceedings initiated twice. One of the proceedings will continue in 2025. The Copyright Committee received its procedural rules in 2024, as established by the Director General of the Patent Office with directive No. 1-1/24-26-O of 9 August 2024.
In 2024, we provided approximately 70 copyright-related written consultations and 33 oral consultations.
The Patent Office represented Estonia in the Copyright Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as well as in the EUIPO Observatory working group.
We also held a copyright seminar in collaboration with the Estonian Authors’ Society. In 2024, a total of 4 copyright-related events took place, with 299 participants.
