5.4.1. Copyright notice (full revision)
The copyright notice informs the reader that a work is protected by copyright. It should indicate the work’s copyright holder, the year of publication, whether reuse is allowed and, if so, under what conditions.
The copyright notice informs the reader that a work is protected by copyright. It should indicate the work’s copyright holder, the year of publication, whether reuse is allowed and, if so, under what conditions. In addition, in a well-drafted and complete copyright notice, it is crucial to acknowledge the third-party elements included in the publication.
A standard copyright notice consists of three elements:
- the symbol ‘©’ or the word ‘Copyright’ to indicate copyright protection,
- the name of the copyright holder,
- the year of first publication of the work.
© [name of the copyright holder], [year of first publication]
for example:
© European Union, 2022
Copyright holder
Only entities with legal personality may hold copyright.
(a) Institutions and interinstitutional services that share the European Union’s legal personality
Publications created by the staff of the European Union’s institutions should display ‘© European Union’, except in the case of the European Central Bank, which has its own legal personality and therefore its own copyright.
© European Union, [year]
© European Central Bank, [year]
Use the full denomination, not just the abbreviation:
© European Central Bank, [year]
and not © ECB, [year]
Interinstitutional services, such as the Publications Office, the European External Action Service and the European Personnel Selection Office, do not have legal personality. Therefore, they use the copyright notice ‘© European Union’ for their publications.
(b) Entities with their own legal personality
Decentralised organisations (agencies) and executive agencies (see Sections 9.5.3 and 9.5.4 for the full lists) have their own legal personality and must therefore be mentioned as holders of the copyright:
© European Environment Agency, [year]
© European Health and Digital Executive Agency, [year]
Use the full denomination, not just the abbreviation:
© European Border and Coast Guard Agency, [year]
or possibly:
© European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), [year]
but not © Frontex, [year]
If the copyright has been transferred to the European Union by contract or other legal document, use the following notice:
© European Union, [year]
See Section 9.5 for the administrative structure of the European Union. The information about the body’s legal personality is to be found in the respective founding act.
Other entities with their own legal personality are the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. They have their own copyright:
© European Investment Bank, [year]
© European Investment Fund, [year]
Documents drawn up within the scope of the Euratom Treaty (and under the Euratom budget line) must have their own copyright notice:
© European Atomic Energy Community, [year]
This is the case, for example, for various documents or specialised publications in the field of atomic energy published by the Joint Research Centre.
Mentioning the authorship
Article 18 of the Staff Regulations states that the copyright in any work done by EU officials in the performance of their duties belongs to the European Union (or to the respective agency etc.). However, in some cases, the author services may require that staff members who have authored the work be mentioned individually in the publication. This is the case, for example, if the publication contains the author’s personal views or for scientific publications or articles in legal journals. In this case, it is advisable to include a legal disclaimer (see Section 5.4.4):
Author: [name of the person]
This does not apply to publications issued by the author services in their institutional capacity.
The year
The duration of copyright protection of an EU publication in a given language begins upon the date of its creation. If a work is published in various languages in different years, each linguistic version should bear the year of its publication.
In the event of reprinting, the copyright notice remains unchanged. However, in the case of new editions, which constitute new publications, the date of the copyright notice should correspond to the year of publication of the new edition.
When the format of a publication is changed (e.g. from paper to an e-book), the year of the edition is the same as the original edition if no changes have been made. If substantial changes are made, a new edition is published, and the date of the copyright notice should correspond to the year of publication of the new edition.
Working with contractors
For any questions, contact the service in charge of copyright at the Publications Office (OP-COPYRIGHT@publications.europa.eu).