French Intellectual Property Code
In forceI.-Where the searches provided for in 1° of Article L. 135-3 must, under this article, take place in France, the sources of information that must be consulted include at least the following sources:
1° For published books:
a) Legal deposit registers;
b) Indexes and catalogues of the holdings and collections of publicly accessible libraries and similar institutions;
c) Databases or registers listing printed books, such as WATCH (Writers, Artists and Their Copyright Holders), ISBN (International Standard Book Number), ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) and the BALZAC directory of the Société des gens de lettres ;
d) Sources held by publishers' and authors' associations;
e) The databases of the collective management bodies approved for the management of reprographic reproduction rights and for the collective management of remuneration for library loans, as well as the one mentioned in article L. 134-3 of the Intellectual Property Code;
f) Sources that integrate multiple databases and registers, such as ELECTRE, VIAF (Virtual International Authority Files) and ARROW (Accessible Registries of Rights Information and Orphan Works);
2° For newspapers, magazines, journals and other printed periodicals:
a) Legal deposit registers;
b) Indexes and catalogues of library holdings and collections accessible to the public;
c) Databases or registers that list printed periodicals, such as ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier);
d) The trade and companies register;
e) Sources held by professional press publishers' organisations and authors' and journalists' associations;
f) The databases of collective management organisations approved for the management of reproduction rights by reprography;
g) The information contained in the box of the printed matter containing the compulsory legal notices and, where applicable, the names of the editors;
3° For visual works, in particular those relating to fine art, photography, illustration, design and architecture, and sketches of these works and other works of the same type appearing in books, periodicals or other works:
a) The sources listed in 1° and 2°, in particular the databases of collective management bodies approved for the management of reproduction rights by reprography;
b) The databases of press agencies and photographic and illustration agencies;
4° For unpublished writings forming part of the collections of libraries accessible to the public, museums and archive services:
a) Legal deposit registers;
b) Indexes and catalogues of holdings in the collections of publicly accessible libraries and similar institutions;
5° For audiovisual works and phonograms:
a) Legal deposit registers and the public cinema and audiovisual register;
b) Databases of depository institutions for film or sound heritage and public libraries;
c) Databases applying relevant standards and identifiers, such as ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number) for audiovisual material, ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) for musical works and ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) for phonograms ;
d) Sources held by producers' associations or other relevant professional associations or organisations representing a specific category of rightholders;
e) Databases of the relevant collective management organisations, in particular those grouping authors, performers, phonogram producers and audiovisual producers;
f) The credits of the work and other information on the packaging of the work.
II.-Where the searches provided for in 1° of Article L. 135-1 must, by virtue of this article, take place in another Member State of the European Union, the sources of information that must be consulted shall include at least the sources defined in that State in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 3 of Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012.
The body shall also carry out searches for rightholders at similar sources existing in other States where it results from those carried out pursuant to the first and second paragraphs that relevant information is likely to be available there.
