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IP Law Uganda
IP Law Uganda
QUESTION:
Critically analyse the categories of rights protected under the copyright and
neighbouring rights act
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Copyright law exists to prevent others from taking unfair advantage of a
person’s creative efforts[ CITATION Bai10 \l 2057 ]. Where a person has the copyright to
some work, the owner of that copyright subsisting in the work has the exclusive right
to do certain acts in relation to the work, such as making a copy, broadcasting or
selling copies to the public[ CITATION Bai10 \l 2057 ]. CITATION Cop06 \l 2057
Section 5 of the Act provides for the works eligible for copyright protection.
The main categories include literary, scientific and artistic works. The works however,
as per the act have to be original and reduced to material form in whatever method
irrespective of quality of the work or the purpose for which it is
created. CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 The purpose
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the originality of ideas, but with the expression of thought[ CITATION Col99 \l
2057 ] CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 . It is in this regard that protection can also be given for authors’
effort as much as their creativity, hence works like sermons and, lectures and
addresses being protected.
The second category the act copyright protects is that of dramatic, dramatic-
musical and musical works as seen in section 5(1)(b). Within our act, they have not
been defined in the interpretation section, however, these are distinguished from
literary works by their capability of being performed, being works of action and in the
case of musical works being performed with music[ CITATION Bak16 \l
2057 ] CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 . They are still similar to literary works in that they ought to
satisfy the condition of originality both as explained by both case law and section 4 of
the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2006, this in fact seems to be a global
requirement as seen from other jurisdictions seeing as Bainbridge asserts that there is
an important qualification to the requirement that a literary, dramatic, musical or
artistic work must be original[ CITATION Bai10 \l 2057 ]. Since a key requirement for their
protection is performance, section 2 defines performance as the presentation of a work
by actions such as dancing, acting, playing, reciting, singing, delivering, declaiming or
projecting to listeners or spectators. In Tate v Fullbrook CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 it was
however shown that in addition to being performed, the work must still be reduced to
a recorded form in order to be protected. Court held that a visual skit for a music hall
sketch involving the use of a firework therein was not the subject matter of copyright
because it had not been reduced to writing. Musical works, when considered
separately as a sub category in Uganda, are protected because of the need to consider
the lyrics and songs as original independent work. They slightly differ from the other
dramatic works in that they do not have to be works of action per se, as the dramatical
works in the context of Uganda are required to be[ CITATION Bak16 \l 2057 ]. Case law has
provided for the requirements necessary for a musical work to be considered for
protection. In the case of Wood v Boosey and another CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 , it was held that
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the work has to be an independent musical composition. This therefore means that
musical compositions that are rearranged from an incomplete old work of music out of
copyright may themselves be worthy of copyright protection even if few or no new
notes are added. This can be seen to be true owing to the judgement given in the
landmark case of Sawkins v Hyperion Records Ltd CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 where it was
shown inter alia that effort, skill and time involved in making such works fulfil the
requirement of originality and thus warrant protection.
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works brings about interesting findings, as a drawing of an existing object may not be
original because the design of the object was not created by the act of drawing. This
position was explored in the case of Duriron Company Inc v Hugh Jennings & Co
Ltd CITATION Cop06 \l 2057 wherein it was seen by the trial judge that inaccurate drawings did
not necessarily create the design of the object that was drawn. Professor Bainbridge
however opines that this test is perhaps ill placed as it limits the application to facts
that are not widely practical.
In the Ugandan context, artistic works are protected because they require great
intellectual creativity and thus warrant protection[ CITATION Bak16 \l
2057 ]. CITATION Cop06 \l 2057
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amounted to original work worthy of copyright protection. This however did not
detract the mpe nkoni song from the traditional Ankole people.
Bibliography
Bainbridge, D. I. (2010). Intellectual Property. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Bakibinga, D. J., & Kankungulu, R. M. (2016). Intellectual Property Law in East Africa. Kampala: Law
Africa.
Colston, C. (1999). Principles of Intellectual Property Law. London: Cavendish Publishing Limited.