Legal theory and the judicial practice of the invalidity of licence agreements

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the invalidity rules and case law of licence agreements in the field of copyright law. The rules governing copyright relations are not exclusively governed by the rules of copyright law but are complemented by the rules of civil law as well. The specific grounds for invalidity issues of licence agreements show that these contracts are specific among private law contracts and that the rules applicable to them cannot be brought solely under the Civil Code. This special situation and legal environment are justified by the typically weaker position of the author in the contracting process, consequently, we can find some author-sensitive rules here. The copyright law rules on the invalidity of licence agreements can be found in a mosaic-way, rather than in a concentrated way, as in the Civil Code. The reason for this is also to be found in the regulatory environment, since the Copyright Act only lays down the ‘copyright-focused’ invalidity rules, which can supplement the grounds for invalidity in the Civil Code in cases where the subject matter of the legal relationship is the use of a copyright work. The paper primarily focuses on some ‘general civil law’ issues of invalidity, such as the requirement of written form, the gross disparity in value, or the problems of standard contractual terms and conditions in line with licence agreements. In this sense, I intend to focus on not just the legal theory but show the relevant judicial practice as well.