Works of utility — Selected issues

Abstract

The author, pointing to some types of works, presents in a controversial way the criterion of “functional orientation”, which — in his opinion — may be useful for creating the legal definition of “works of utility”. The author attempts to substantiate the thesis that the use of this term has a significant cognitive value. Category thus defined, can be used both as a tool for studying trade rela-tions covered by legal regulation as well as in the practice of lawmaking and applying the law. This closely matches the paradigm of the rational legislator. This assessment is based on partial research results on architectural, didactic, and typographic works. The conducted considerations generally aim at attempting to define, for the purposes of legal analysis, the concept of “work of utility” — by indicating the criteria for its distinction and additionally, its brief comparison to the selected cur-rent copyright law regarding works that should be considered “utility” using these criteria. In this respect, the author considers the regulation regarding computer programs as a model regulation and briefly analyses adequate existing regulations using the proposed criterion with consideration for the rational legislator paradigm.