Addressing challenges of copyright and related rights infringement under Rwandan law

Abstract

The present study is entitled “Addressing Challenges of Copyright and Related Rights Infringement under Rwandan Law”. It had as objectives to explore negative impacts for copyright infringements prosecution to be initiated upon the victim request; to describe the victim indemnification obstacles as well as to highlight other challenges regarding copyright infringements remedies and to find out sustainable solutions to challenges that are facing victims of copyright infringements in both prosecution and indemnification. In order to attain those objectives, the study was designed as a doctrinal-based with no component of empirical study. It was conducted through a review of literature as well as an examination of relevant sources of law both statutory and judicial, and an analysis of international and foreign law. In that framework, Rwandan legal text books relevant to the topic were consulted, as well as various publications including journals, reports and electronic sources, among others. As far as the structure of the study is concerned, the present work is subdivided into three chapters. In addition to the general introduction which is centered to various motivations that led to the decision to undertake a research on copyrights owners’ protection, the first chapter reviews the existing literature on copyrights and related rights and their infringements. The second one highlights challenges that jeopardize copyrights owners’ rights protection, whereas the third suggests solutions to those challenges. The study ends in a general conclusion that summarizes key findings before formulating recommendations for the improvement and effectiveness in the protection of copyrights owners against copyright and related rights infringement. Among other key findings, the study found that though violated, copyrights are protected by the 2009 IP law. However, the study found that that law presents some loopholes that need to be corrected through an amendment for copyrights owners’ rights to be more protected. Loopholes at issue include provisions regarding infringements prosecution which is viii subjected to the victim’s request, indemnification of the suspected infringer who wins the case, the pertinence of evidences, the computation of damages referred to the exact suffered prejudice and submission of pre-trial measures to a court decision. The study furthermore found that the awareness of both the Rwandan community and copyrights owners on IPRs protection is still low until ignoring the existence intellectual property rights (IPRs) legal protection. In order to overcome challenges that prevent copyrights owners to enjoy their rights, recommendations were formulated to MINICOM, RDB and Rwanda Law Reform Commission (RLRC) as institutions endowed with power to initiate legislation and related amendments for them to initiate the amendment of some IPL provisions and to raise the community and copyrights owners’ awareness on the IPL enforcement. Recommendations were addressed to the parliament for same purposes and copyrights owners for their active involvement in their rights protection, including associations and federation creation. The judiciary was also recommended for it to apply at least available case laws and scholars’ opinions on IPRs.