PRAVO STVARAOCA INTELEKTUALNE KREACIJE DA BUDE ANONIMAN

Abstract

Street art is a broad term for works that can be found in public spaces. Artists usually present their work on existing surfaces, such as walls, power boxes, traffic signs, benches or even trees. Sometimes a wide range of installations or sculptures can be found as an expression of this art form. When it comes to works of street art, it is interesting whether they enjoy protection under intellectual property rights, primarily through trademark and copyright. A particularly interesting case is when the creator of a piece of street art decided to hide his identity. The most famous example is the British artist Banksy. Through graffiti appearing overnight in public places around the world, Banksy has become a legend in the urban art scene. Despite his anti-commercial stance on the exploitation of copyrighted works in general, in recent years Banksy has been granted EU trademarks that feature some of his famous works. In the meantime, some applications and registrations of EU trademarks have been successfully contested due to the absence of the intention to seriously use the trademarks, i.e. due to registration of trademarks in bad faith. However, one decision was made in Banksy's favor. In the paper, the author analyzes an interesting case of coincidence of copyright and trademark on works of art whose author decided to hide his identity.