Copyright registration in Tanzania. Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located. Three of Africa’s Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. In 2020, the World Bank declared the rise of the Tanzanian economy from a low-income to a lower-middle-income country. 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 Tanzania.
Copyright in Tanzania
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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 Tanzania 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 Tanzania 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 Tanzania immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Tanzania
Tanzania is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1994.
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 Tanzania is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Tanzania 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 Tanzania 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 Tanzania
To obtain copyright registration in Tanzania, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Tanzania;
- 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 Tanzania
The Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act governs copyrights. The Copyright Society of Tanzania (COSOTA) is an organization in charge of copyright registration. Works by writers who are Tanzanian nationals or have their regular abode in Tanzania are protected by copyright.
Tanzania ascended the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which went into force on July 25, 1994. To that end, copyrights in Tanzania are territorial in the sense that all works done in the United Republic of Tanzania and those first published in Tanzania are protected under the law, regardless of the authors’ nationality.
You can see a list of Tanzania IP firms here.