Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/72

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��Copyright Act, 1911.

��5(2).

��Assigument ex facie absolute disproved by contempo- raneous letters.

��Assignor may sell off stock in hand.

��Assignment of the pro- spective copy- right in an un- created work.

��tion. A purported assignment of the sole right to sell copies within a prescribed area is not a partial assignment of copyright, and merely operates as a contract whereby the owner of the copyright as a contracting party agrees that he will not permit any other sale within the area specified. The grantee of the ,sole sale rights acquires no monopoly whereby he can sue third persons selling copies within his area. He can only proceed against them on the ground that they, knowing of the contract, procured the owner of the copyright to sell copies to them in breach of his contract [z].

Where a document which purports on the face of it to be an unconditional assignment of the copyright is pro- duced, the Court may inquire as to whether such document contains the whole agreement between the parties to the alleged assignment, and all other documents relating to such agreement must be produced. If the Court finds that upon the true construction of all the documents and other evidence there was no intention to assign the copyright in fact, but merely an intention to give the alleged as- signees a temporary title for a temporary purpose, the Court will hold that there was no assignment of copy- right, and the alleged assignees will have no title to sue (a).

Since the right to sell copies of the work is not part of the monopoly, it follows that where any person has assigned his copyright, he can, notwithstanding such assignment, continue to sell copies which he made while he was the owner of the copyright (6).

It is submitted that although the Act specifically enacts that the author of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright, yet if the work is executed under a written agreement upon terms that the person on whose behalf the work is executed shall be the proprietor of the copyright, that is a sufficient assignment of the in- choate right, so that on the work being created the copy- right will vest in the employer apart from any question

��{z) Landekcr and Broicn v. ZFo// (1908), Cop. Cas. 1905-10, p. 102.

(«) Ibid.

ih) Taylor v. PUloic (1869), L. R. 7 Eq. 418 ; Eoicitt v. Hall (1862),

��6 L. T. (N. S.) 348.

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