For artists and creatives.

Your work is yours

In Malta, copyright protects paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture and works of artistic craftsmanship, as well as literary, musical and audiovisual works.¹ There is nothing to file: protection applies once an original work is set down in material form.² It lasts for your lifetime and seventy years after.³

Copyright belongs first to the person who made the work. For most kinds of work this stays true even if you made it as an employee, unless you agreed otherwise.⁴ You also keep the right to be named as the author, and to object to treatment of your work that harms your honour or reputation. These moral rights cannot be transferred during your lifetime.⁵

What we help with

• Your name and brand. An artist name, studio, band or label can be registered as a trade mark. EU trade marks can consist of any sign, including personal names.⁶ We search, file and watch the register.

• Copyright and licensing. Whether you sell a work, license an image or take a commission, we set out who owns what and how it may be used. In Malta, an assignment or licence of copyright has no effect unless it is in writing.⁷

• Contracts. We draft and review commission, gallery, agency, collaboration and performer agreements.

• Designs for makers. Prints, surface patterns, furniture, ceramics, jewellery and other handicrafts can be protected as EU designs.⁸ If you have already shown a design publicly, you can still register it within twelve months.⁹ An unregistered EU design protects against copying for three years.¹⁰

• Disputes. If someone copies your work, Maltese courts can award damages and order the infringer to hand over profits and infringing copies.¹¹ An EU trade mark or design that uses your copyright work without permission can be declared invalid.¹²

Who we work with

• Visual artists and illustrators. Painters, photographers, printmakers and illustrators. Copyright in the work, sales and commissions, and licensing images.

• Music and performance. Musicians, songwriters, performers and producers. Performers have their own rights over recordings and broadcasts of their performances.¹³ Artist and band names, recording and collaboration agreements.

• Film, theatre and writing. Directors, writers and production companies. Rights in scripts and productions, and the agreements between everyone involved.

• Makers and designers. Ceramicists, jewellers, furniture and fashion designers. Design protection and brands for what you make.

Sources
1. Copyright Act (Cap. 415), Arts. 2 and 3(1)
2. Ibid., Art. 3(2)
3. Ibid., Art. 4(2)
4. Ibid., Art. 11(1)
5. Ibid., Art. 12
6. Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, Art. 4
7. Copyright Act (Cap. 415), Art. 24(4)
8. Regulation (EU) 2026/715, Art. 4(2)
9. Ibid., Art. 8(2)
10. Ibid., Arts. 12(1) and 20(4)
11. Copyright Act (Cap. 415), Art. 43
12. Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, Art. 60(2)(c); Regulation (EU) 2026/715, Art. 27(1)(f)
13. Copyright Act (Cap. 415), Art. 13