Creative Freedom and Technical Function in the Field of Intellectual Property

Adrian CIRCA 
Assoc. Prof., PhD.
Faculty of Law, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu
E-mail: adrian.circa@ulbsibiu.ro

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8813-5200
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59277/CSNPISSH.2025.03

Copyright (c) 2025.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Published on December 28, 2025

Abstract
Intellectual property still preserves the binary division between literary and artistic property and industrial property. The element that unites them is intellectual activity, namely the act of creation. Of course, we also see the aspect that differentiates them, namely the function granted to them.
In practice, most often the aim is that the same good, after the expiration of the protection period of one type of intellectual property right, accesses the protection of another kind of intellectual right, but which maintains the same exclusivity, and if possible, for as long as possible. Among the causes that determine this behavior of economic operators who resort to the protection systems offered by intellectual property, we can see the international environment that has become ultra-competitive.
Another aspect that unites these rights is that the aim is to appropriate the form of a product, namely the expression of the result of the creative effort. The appropriate form will only be that form perceptible thanks to the appearance of a product. This form, in principle, can form the object of appropriation through several types of intellectual rights. If this appearance is dictated by circumstances other than the imagination of their author, the product will not be able to be the object of protection, for example, by copyright. In other words, the form excluded by law refers to those characteristics of the form that are inseparable from the technical function of the object.

Keyword
Intellectual property, creative freedom, product appearance, technical function, autonomy of intellectual property rights

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