Copyright registration in Rwanda. Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley. The economy of Rwanda is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export. Tourism is a fast-growing sector and is now the country’s leading foreign exchange earner. Rwanda is one of only two countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely, and visitors pay high prices for gorilla tracking permits. 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 Rwanda.
Copyright in Rwanda
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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 Rwanda 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 Rwanda 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 Rwanda immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Rwanda
Rwanda is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1984.
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 Rwanda is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Rwanda 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 Rwanda 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 Rwanda
To obtain copyright registration in Rwanda, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Rwanda;
- 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 Rwanda
Rwanda has been a member of the Berne Convention since 1 March 1984 and the World Trade Organization since 22 May 1996.
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 31/2009 of 26/10/2009 on the Protection of Intellectual Property as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Rwanda.
WIPO holds the text of this law in the WIPO Lex database. The law is retroactive: “Repeal of former provisions contrary to this Law … the Law No 27/1983 of November 15th, 1983 governing the copyrights … and any other former legal provisions contrary to this Law are hereby repealed”.[31/2009 Article 294]
You can see a list of Rwanda IP firms here.