Noguer Publishing Company v Forjador Publishing Company

• Jurisdicción: Argentina
• Fecha: 01 Septiembre 1959
• Emisor: Federal Court of Appeals (Argentina)

Argentina, Judge in Criminal Matters of the Federal Capital.

Court of Appeals in Criminal Matters of the Federal Capital.

Noguer Publishing Co. Inc.

and

Forjador Publishing Co.

Treaties Operation and enforcement of Effect on existing municipal law Provisions of criminal law relating to unauthorized sale or reproduction of copyright work Effect of Universal Copyright Convention, 1952 Whether protection under Convention can be invoked in absence of proof of cession of author's rights The law of Argentina.

The Facts.The Noguer Publishing Co., Inc., of Barcelona, brought an action against Forjador Publishing Co., of Buenos Aires, and others for infringement of copyright arising out of the defendants' publication and distribution of a Spanish edition of Dr. Zhivago by Boris L. Pasternak, and sought a court order impounding all copies of the said edition of the book. Noguer contended that it had been granted exclusive rights to the Spanish translation of the book by the Feltrinelli Publishing Co. of Milan, which held the copyright by agreement with the author. Forjador moved for the dismissal of the complaint, arguing that Pasternak had never consented to the publication of the book in Italy by Feltrinelli and, in the alternative, that as the book had first been published, albeit in an abridged form, in the Soviet Union, it was not protected by the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952,1 because the Soviet Union is not bound by that Convention. Forjador admitted that the Convention could be invoked in the instant case if it were shown that the book had first been published in Italy with the consent of the author, because Italy was bound by the Convention.

Held (by the trial Court): that the complaint must be dismissed. Protection of copyright under the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952 and under Argentine law could not be invoked in the absence of adequate proof of cession of the author's rights of translation and publication.

The Court said: The Universal Copyright Convention, which was concluded on September 6, 1952, at a Conference held at Geneva under the auspices of U.N.E.S.C.O., was ratified by Argentina by

Decree-Law No. 12.088/57, which was published in the Boletin Oficial of October 15, 1957.1 This act of ratification by the then de facto Government was subsequently validated by an act of the constitutional Government.

According to Article 3 of the Convention, each party will consider that for the purposes of copyright protection the...