An employee work is a copyrighted work created by an employee in the course of performing their employment duties. Its legal regime is governed by Section 58 of the Czech Copyright Act, which stipulates that the economic rights to an employee work are exercised by the employer, not by the author. However, this transfer applies only if all statutory conditions are met – the work must be an original result of the creative activity of a natural person, created within an employment relationship and in the performance of assigned duties.
It is important to distinguish between moral and economic rights in relation to employee works. The author always retains their moral rights – including the right to be identified as the author, to decide how authorship is presented, and to protect the integrity of their work. These rights are non-transferable, cannot be waived, and expire upon the author’s death.
Our firm helps clients ensure that rights to employee works are clearly defined and contractually secured, enabling employers to use such works to the extent necessary for their business. We prepare and review employment contracts, amendments, and internal policies that explicitly record the author’s consent to the use, modification, adaptation, combination with other works, or publication of the work.
We also address the issue of the right to additional remuneration under Section 58(6) of the Copyright Act, which allows authors to claim reasonable supplementary compensation if the employer’s profit from the use of the work is clearly disproportionate to the author’s original remuneration.
Our goal is to provide employers with legal certainty in managing works created by their employees, while maintaining protection for creators. Timely and precise regulation of employee work rights eliminates the risk of disputes and allows companies to safely develop their know-how, technologies, and creative results.
