Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/74

 Copyright Act, 191 J.

��5(2).

��Assignment in foreign country.

��Warranty of title.

��Whether obligation to pay royalties runs with the ■copyright.

��It has been suggested that, where an assignment of copyright takes place in a foreign country, the validity of such assignment ought to bo determined by the law of the country where it is made(A-). No doubt this is the general rule, but it probably has no application to the case of a statutory right in the nature of copyright, where the statute prescribes a particular form of assign- ment. It is submitted that, as far as an English Court is concerned, no assignment is operative unless made in writing as required by the Act.

Where a person purports to assign a copyright sim- pliciter, ho Avarrants that he has a valid and unincum- bered title, and if the title proves defective, the assignee may sue him for damages for breach of warranty (/i).

A question arises as to how far an assignee of a copy- right is bound by any agreement on the part of his assignor to pay royalties or a share of profits to the author. This point is of great importance in the case of pub- lishing agreements where the author parts with his copy- right in consideration of an agreement on the part of the publisher to pay royalties or a share of profits. It has been held, in the case of an assignment of patent rights, that an agreement by the assignee to pay a royalty on the future working of the patent represents the purchase price for the patent, and- that the vendor has therefore a lien on the patent for future royalties as being the balance of unpaid purchase-money (m). This lien for royalties can only, howcA'er, be exercised as against a subsequent assignee of the copyright taking gratuitously or with notice of the existence of the agreement. It cannot be exercised against an assignee taking for value and without notice. It is also necessary that the agree- ment to pay royalties should be an agreement in general terms to pay so much upon each copy sold. If the agreement is to pay upon copies manufactured and sold bj' the original publishers with whom the agreement

��(1895), 74 L. T. (N. S.) 77 ; Zonn- v. Davidson (1856), 1 C. B. (N. S.) 182; LatouTN. Bland (1818), 2 Stark. 382; Levy y. Ridley (1871), L. R. 6 C. P. 523 ; Colbtirn v. Buncombe (1838), 9 Sim. 151.

[k) Jeferys v. Boosey (1854), 4 H. L. C. 815, 940; Cods v. Purday (1848), 5 C. B. 860.

(I) Sims V. Marryat (1851), 17 Q. B. 281; Qneensberry v. Shebbeare (1758), 2 Eden, Ch. Gas. 330.

(w) Bansk, ^-c. v. Snell, [1908] 2 Ch. 127, and cases there cited.

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