The subject of intellectual property is the owner of intellectual property, including copyright owner, patentee, trademark owner, etc. The subject of intellectual property rights can be a natural person, a legal person or an unincorporated organization, or even a state.
The original subject of intellectual property rights refers to the person who directly enjoys intellectual property rights and does not enjoy other basic rights according to legal provisions or national administrative authorization.
Different from general property rights, the acquisition of the original subject qualification of intellectual property rights often requires two conditions: the creative behavior of the creator and the authorization behavior of the state organs.
For example, authorized patent inventors and registered trademark owners. Even if intellectual property rights such as copyright, trade secret right and origin mark right can be obtained without the approval of state organs, the original acquisition of their subject qualifications must be based on the direct provisions of the law.
In the production and development activities of knowledge products, the act of creation or invention-creation is essentially a factual act, and anyone can obtain the identity of the creator of knowledge products through his own intellectual labor. In the original acquisition of intellectual property rights, the activities authorized by state organs (national laws) are the necessary procedures to finally confirm the qualification of the right subject.
The successor of intellectual property rights refers to the person who obtains all or part of intellectual property rights through transferee, inheritance, gift or other means prescribed by law.
In the theory of civil law, there are two standards to distinguish derivative acquisition from original acquisition: one is the feature of will, that is, acquisition can only occur according to the will of the original owner of the object (or knowledge product). Second, the source of rights, that is, derivative acquisition is based on the rights of the original obligee and can only be produced through the transfer of rights. Heirs must rely on the intellectual property rights of the original obligee to obtain intellectual property rights.
According to the principle of "one thing, one right" in general property ownership, two or more property rights with the same content or other mutually exclusive property rights cannot be established on the same property. From the perspective of derivative acquisition, one party transfers its rights, that is, it loses the qualification of the subject of rights, while the other party who inherits the rights becomes the new subject of property ownership.