Czech copyright and software ownership basics

A foreign start-up hires a Prague developer, pays the invoices for a year, and then learns that the contract says nothing about who owns the code. The developer thinks the company has a licence. The company thinks it owns the software. Both are partly right, and the argument that follows is a very Czech lesson in how copyright differs from the common-law model.

This is a general explainer, not legal advice. Anyone buying or selling software or creative work should have the agreement checked by a lawyer with IP experience.

The basic rule

The Copyright Act (no. 121/2000 Coll.) protects literary, artistic and scientific works that are the unique result of the author's creative activity. Software is treated as a literary work, like texts, photographs, drawings, architectural designs and music. Protection arises automatically once the work exists in a perceivable form. There is no register and no need for a © sign.

The author is a natural person, the human who created the work. A company cannot be the original author, though it can hold rights. Protection runs for the author's life plus 70 years (as of 2026; check the official source), and for some works the Act sets other terms.

Economic and moral rights

The Act distinguishes two groups of rights. Economic rights cover use of the work: copying, distributing, communicating it to the public, adapting it. Moral (personal) rights include the right to be named as author, to decide on first publication and to the integrity of the work.

Here Czech law departs from many systems: economic rights are not transferred, only licensed. A contract that says "the author hereby assigns all rights" may therefore be read by a Czech court as a grant of an exclusive licence, if it is otherwise valid. Good Czech contracts say so directly, and a contract imported from abroad and left unrevised may not do what its drafter thinks.

Moral rights stay with the author. In practice an author can agree not to insist on them in particular contexts, such as a credit, but they do not simply pass to a buyer.

Employees

If an employee creates a work in fulfilling the duties of the job, the employer exercises the economic rights in its own name and on its own account. The author keeps the moral rights. For software the rule is stated plainly: the employer exercises the economic rights in software created by an employee in the course of duties or on the employer's instructions, unless otherwise agreed.

The work must still fall within the employee's duties. A developer who writes a game in their own time with their own equipment stands differently from one who writes the company's billing system. The employment contract should set out the duties, and employees should read what they sign. See how to hire your first employee for the contractual side.

Contractors and freelancers

A freelancer is not an employee, so the rule above does not apply. The client receives a licence (licence) under a licence agreement, whose scope should say:

• whether use is exclusive or non-exclusive;
• the manner of use (copying, modification, distribution);
• the time period;
• the territory;
• the quantity, where relevant.

Put the licence in writing; an exclusive licence must be in writing under the Civil Code. If the agreement leaves the limits unstated, the Act supplies defaults, which may be narrower than the client expects. Say plainly whether the licence is paid for separately or included in the fee for the work, because a silent contract invites a dispute.

A software licence normally also covers the source code, the right to modify and what happens on termination. For a client planning to maintain the software with another supplier, access to the source code and a right to modify are the clauses to read twice.

Open source and third-party code

Open-source software is licensed, not abandoned. If your product includes code under a licence that requires you to publish your changes, that obligation follows the code. Keep a record of the licences of the components you use. That is a matter for the contract and a technical audit, not for the Copyright Act alone.

Moral rights in practice

The right to be named and to the integrity of the work comes up less often in business software, but it matters for design, photography and text. A client who wants to alter, crop or rebrand a work should check that the licence covers modification. Where it does not, ask.

Evidence

There is no copyright register in Czechia. If ownership may later be disputed, keep dated drafts, version-control history and signed agreements. A court or an acquirer's lawyer will ask for exactly these. Trademarks and designs work differently; see Czech trademarks and IP.

When you commission anything from a Czech author, the agreement should state who the author is, what is licensed, for how long and where, and what it costs. Four lines in a contract replace four months of correspondence.

This is a general explainer, not legal or tax advice.