Rights cumulative: Difference between revisions

{{boileranat|rights cumulative|[[File:Cake.jpg|450|center|thumb|A [[legal eagle]] having some rights and exercising them too, yesterday.]]}}Somewhere, once upon a time, one of our [[Chicken-licken|learned friends]] must have had a near-death experience, psychotic episode, or somehow hit on the paranoid thought that a [[cause of action]] conferred by [[contract]] might inadvertently squish an analogous one arising at [[common law]] or under a [[statute]].  

Well, it might, but only where the theory of the game suggests it ''should'' — and there, you shouldn’t need a “[[rights cumulative]]” clause and, if you have one, it won’t work anyway.

Where it ''will'' work, the proposition that “unrelated rights are cumulative where they don’t overlap” goes without saying, so — well, you don’t need it there, either.

===Where [[rights cumulative]] ''will'' work, it isn’t needed===

I might pass you my manuscript under a [[confidentiality agreement]]: your publication of it in breach of that agreement may entitle me [[contractual damages]], but my direct losses as a result — the traditional measure of contractual [[damages]], of course — might add up to a lot less than your resulting profits — which the [[common law]] might regarded as unreasonably speculative losses beyond the reach of an aggrieved contracting party — as a result.  

No matter: because I hold the [[copyright]] in the manuscript, I can exercise my ''statutory'' right to have you [[Account for profits|account to me for those profits]] too — but where my [[contractual damages]] and your profits coincide, I can only recover ''once''. There is an arid intellectual discussion to be had about which prevails in a time of conflict. Nothing hinges on it, but it seems to the [[JC]] that one’s proprietary statutory rights under a [[copyright]] pre-exist any rights you might have under this or that [[contract]], so a claim for lost profits through [[breach of copyright]] always comes first. This means the contractual [[damages]] under a [[confidentiality agreement]] in and of itself are likely to be meagre. This is a perennial problem with confidentiality agreements, and is the reason for all that mush about [[equitable remedies]] and [[injunction]]s.  

Where was I? There is no suggestion that a fellow waives her [[copyright]] by signing a [[contract]] (unless the contract clearly ''says'' that), so she should hardly need a [[rights cumulative]] clause to satisfy herself that her rights are cumulative, unless she deliberately waived them, where they won’t be.

===Where [[rights cumulative]] ''won’t'' work, and isn’t wanted===