Copyright registration in Peru. Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. The sovereign state of Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Peru has a high level of human development with an upper middle-income level ranking 82nd on the Human Development Index. It is one of the region’s most prosperous economies with an average growth rate of 5.9% and it has one of the world’s fastest industrial growth rates at an average of 9.6%. 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 Peru.
Copyright in Peru
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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 Peru 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 Peru 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 Peru immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Peru
Peru is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1988.
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 Peru is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Peru 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 Peru 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 needed to resolve issues related to copyright, proving 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 Peru
To obtain copyright registration in Peru, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Peru;
- 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 Peru
Peru has been a member of the Universal Copyright Convention since 16 October 1963, the Berne Convention since 20 August 1988, the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 March 2002.
In 2006, Peru established relations with the United States years after the expiration of the original agreement with the Andean Community (Resolución Legislativa Nº 28766). In 16th Chapter of this agreement provides subsisting copyright with minimum protection period of 70 years after the death of the author as natural person or 70 years after the publication of the work as organization (or at least 70 years after its creation if it remained unpublished for 50 years).
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Copyright Law (Legislative Decree No. 822) of 1996 as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Peru.
WIPO holds the text of this law in the WIPO Lex database. It has been amended by, among others, Law No. 30276 on Amendments to the Copyright Law (Legislative Decree No. 822), Legislative Decree No. 1076 of June 27, 2008, on the Law Amending Legislative Decree No. 822, Law No. 28571 on Amendments to Articles 188 and 189 of the Copyright Law (Legislative Decree No. 822 of April 23, 1996).
These do not appear to affect the definitions of protected works or the durations of protection.
You can see a list of Peru IP Firms here.