Sweden: Court rules that copyrighted work vests with the employer

An illustrator was on several occasions contracted and later employed to help design and illustrate copyrighted works in the form of characters for a children’s book series. As the book series became popular, the characters were used in different types of media and merchandise. The illustrator deemed he was entitled additional remuneration, which the employer was unwilling to pay. As such, the illustrator terminated the employment and claimed that the employer had to stop using the copyrighted characters. The employer claimed that the copyrighted characters had been assigned and that the employer had acquired all intellectual property rights relating to the characters. The illustrator and employer had worked together over a period of 12 years, during which a written agreement including provisions on assignment of intellectual property had not been entered until the last six months of employment. However, the Labour Court found that the illustrator’s specific assignment both as a contractor and an employee had been to help design and illustrate copyrighted material comprising the characters and, as of the first assignment, the illustrator had been aware of the employer’s intention to use the characters in different types of media and merchandise, which he had not opposed. As such, the Labour Court deemed that the intellectual property related to the characters had vested with the employer and that the employer was entitled to continue using the characters.