Ethics and IPR - Much Needed Legal Solutions for Tomorrow

Abstract

This article considers the protection of authorship in scientific papers. We analysed the role of authorship in the light of
the current legal and ethical framework. We have discovered that standard rules of copyright law refer to the relationship
between the 'author' and the result of their creative activity. 'Authors' are not originators of a discovery, idea, procedure,
theory, method or other immaterial contribution to research unless they have fixed the intellectual work in any tangible
medium of expression. At times, it is challenging to identify scientific products, which are an essential contribution to
research projects, which means that copyright law might not protect them. These two contexts, modern science and
copyright law, allow us to conclude that ethical codes for researchers properly define the right to be an author of a scientific
paper. The study aims to clarify that (1) international human rights guarantee the protection of the author's moral rights of
the original contribution to the research project, (2) this obligation is not implemented correctly by national legislators, (3)
national legislators' task is to create an adequate legal protection system for original contributions to research science
according to the example of the solutions adopted by the German legislator.