The Protection of Translations under European Copyright Law

Translations may be placed somewhere on a spectrum between an independent work and a copy of an existing work. A translation will always be dependent on an already existing text and the aim of the translation will be to convey the meaning of this text in a new language. From a copyright perspective this raises several issues, including the question of when a translation will be considered protectable as an original work in its own right. This article explores this issue from a European perspective, and provides a comprehensive assessment of how the general requirements for copyright protection developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union apply to translations. In addition, it explores how different national courts in Europe have assessed the question of copyright protection for translations. The article concludes that in many instances translators are able to make the necessary free and creative choices to be granted copyright protection, albeit this is dependent on the specific translation at hand.