The 27th Civil Court of São Paulo ordered the company Stone Pagamentos to indemnify the designer Ricardo Martins for copyright infringement due to the imitation of his new layout of transaction receipts on card machines1.
In 2016, after developing the layout as an exercise for a class he taught in a university course, the designer posted the project on his profile on a social network. Later, the designer recognized his project on the payment receipts issued by Stone Pagamentos when a purchase was finalized.
The judge pointed out that: “Article 7 of Law No. 9.610/98 is an explanatory list, and,for the purposes of characterizing as an intellectual work,it should be considered any‘creations of the spirit, expressed by any means or fixed in any support, tangible or intangible, known or invented in the future ‘, which, strictly speaking, makes the design planned by the author having legal protection “. Therefore, for the judge held that the layout was a work protected by copyright.
According to the decision, Stone Pagamentos will have to disclose the identity of the author as the creator of the design of the transaction receipts for its card machines, through communication, with prominence, for three consecutive times in a major newspaper. Also, the company was ordered to indemnify the designer for moral damages in the amount of R$ 20,000 (twenty thousand reais).
1Lawsuit No. 1122766-68.2019.8.26.0100
More information available in Portuguese at:https://www.conjur.com.br/2020-dez-25/empresa-condenada-usar-projeto-layout-autorizacao