Software copyright in a collaboration project for startup development
<p>I am embarking on a possible EU-funded cooperation project to develop a platform, with other organizations. The development of the code will be shared.</p>
<p>I am writing this application with my startup, to create a platform for impact in the cultural field. As such, I have specified to the organizations that the startup will need to own the platform, to attract investments and scale it up in Europe, and ownership is clarified in the EU application.</p>
<p>I believe that these kind of approaches are commonly done through research-SME cooperation grants. However, I am unaware of the implications. I believe that any person's work must be paid and acknowledged, so I'd like to ask your advice on what kind of options are before me.</p>
<p>Since the coder of a software has copyright over the developed code, can that be acquired after the development of the project? If yes, is there an indicative amount, or somewhere to look for this information?</p>
<p>The other option, would be to give the coders a share in the company. However, it may be that they are not interested in that, and I would not like to find myself at the end of the project with a code that I cannot use, or that cannot attract investors (I am also one of the coders). This question is to understand how to move, without being potentially seen aggressive on the theme with my eventual partners. Any help would be very appreciated.</p>

<h2>There is <em>no</em> EU law on copyright</h2>
<p>Each member state of the EU has its own copyright law and they are all subtly different. For example, the employer of an author owns the copyright in Ireland but the employee owns it in France, subject to any licence in their employment contract and noting that French works cannot be perpetually transferred.</p>
<p>The ownership law that applies is the law where the work was created. If you have a multi-national team then you may have different ownership laws applying to the work. It also sounds like the work will be collaborative such that it will be difficult to point to any part of it and identify the author of that part; this makes it a joint work and all copyright owners must agree on any use of the joint work.</p>
<p>You need a lawyer well versed in international copyright law.</p>

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