Royalties

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Royaltys (singular the royalty ) is an Anglicism which , as a technical term, includes all fee income of the intellectual owner from the exploitation of his work or right in the context of concessions , licenses , patents , trademarks or copyrights .

The term Tantiemen, which is often used in German, is more specific because it depends on the result, e.g. B. sales, dependent payments , while royalty also means other types of payments (one-time payments, recurring fixed amounts such as annual fees, etc.).

General

The term comes from medieval England , when the English crown (the “royalty”) had to pay fees for the use ( agriculture ) or dismantling ( mining ) of their (land) property ( regalia ) in the form of rent by the tenants . The word comes etymologically from the old French word for royal rule roialte (where also the modern French word French royauté ). Even today, the English word royalty continues to mean the members of royal and princely families and their status much more often than the meanings derived from it, royalty, profit share, license (fee) or patent fee.

example

Using the example of copyrights for music , this should be explained as representative of the other types of intellectual property. The composer must register the copyright on his work through his music publisher with a collecting society provided for this purpose ( e.g. GEMA in Germany ) and conclude an authorization agreement with this. GEMA registers the work and, on a legal and statutory basis, requires subsequent users of the work ( sound carrier manufacturers , radio and television , cinemas , organizers of public performances, etc.) to pay a usage fee, which is paid to the composer by the responsible music publisher using a complex distribution key . These usage fees are known as royalties (or, more precisely, royalties). If they represent a permanent source of income from the composer's point of view, they are referred to as "running royalties". The payable by producers of phonograms fees are "mechanical rights" (or English "Mechanicals" called) (see the article about the GEMA). In particular in popular pop music , which is widespread in masses , the fees, for example in the case of multi-million sellers, can reach a considerable amount .

The way royalties are collected is often governed by individual contracts. Only in the case of artistic works is there a certain degree of uniformity through the collecting societies and publishers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden - The foreign dictionary. 9th edition. Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-411-04059-9 .
  2. ↑ en.oxforddictionaries.com