Copyright registration in Libya. Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. With an area of almost 700,000 square miles (1.8 million km2), it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves in the world. Libya is a member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Arab League, the OIC, and OPEC. The country’s official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Libya.
Copyright in Libya
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Libya early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Libya will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Libya immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Libya
Libya is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1976.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Libya is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Libya will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Libya is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Libya
To obtain copyright registration in Libya, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Libya;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Libya
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 9 for 1968 Issuing the Copyright Protection Law as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Libya. WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database. A copy is also held in Wikisource.
However, another source says that copyright is governed by Law number 7 of 1984, which is based on law number 9 of 1968 on copyright protection. Protection is valid for the lifetime of the author plus a period of 50 years.
You can see a list of Libya IP firms here.