As we have said, this will probably end up in court and the battle will be substantially over whether M&M's intellectual property was unlawfully taken. We sought an expert's opinion on this today. Marissa Longsworth is an attorney who specializes in intellectual property. She's not involve in the case - and has not seen all the agreements - but she spoke in specific terms about what constitutes ownership of intellectual property:
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"As the city council has stated: There is no copyright on intellectual property for engineering designs you've sold to the government. Copyright is automatic, so it's not granted by any one person. So the minute that an architect draws, the copyright is vested in that architect."
Reporter
"It's implicit."
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"It is implicit. It's automatic by default, in the act of creation you are a copyright owner as a result. So because you are implicitly a copyright owner, you automatically have your moral and your economic rights. It operates because Belize Belize is signatory to what's called the Berne Convention. The Berne Convention guides all signatories around the world how to treat copyright."
"But the concepts of authorship, ownership and moral and economic rights, that is implicit wherever you are. One steering un Bern convention country."
Reporter
"So the minute I start to create something I immediately invoke my implicit moral right?"
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"Yes you do."
Reporter
"That is then inalienable."
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"That's correct. It's waivable, but it's nontransferable. So you, as I said, you can say to someone, okay, I'm doing a painting, but you don't have to show my signature. That's okay. I'm waiving my right to be attributed as the author of this painting. But I will never be able to say, Jules, hang it up in your house and sign your name on it like that. You painted that. That that would be a transfer of your moral rights and that is not permitted."
So what is an intellectual property owner sells their right - in this case to the government of Belize? We'll examine that tomorrow.
