Legal notes to copyright registration in Uruguay

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Copyright registration in Uruguay. Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. Uruguay is ranked first in Latin America in democracy, peace, low perception of corruption, and e-government. It is the lowest ranking South American nation in the Global Terrorism Index, and ranks second in the continent on economic freedom, income equality, per-capita income, and inflows of FDI. Uruguay is the third-best country on the continent in terms of Human Development Index, GDP growth, innovation, and infrastructure. Uruguay is regarded as one of the most socially progressive countries in Latin America. 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 Uruguay.

Copyright in Uruguay

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The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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 Uruguay 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 Uruguay 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 Uruguay immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.

Copyright registration in Uruguay

Uruguay is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1967.

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 Uruguay is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Uruguay 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 Uruguay 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 Uruguay

To obtain copyright registration in Uruguay, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:

  • Declaration of copyright registration in Uruguay;
  • 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 Uruguay

Uruguay has been a member of the Berne Convention since 10 July 1967, the Universal Copyright Convention since 12 April 1993, the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 20 October 2006.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 9.739 of December 17, 1937, on Literary and Artistic Property (as amended up to Law No. 18.046 of October 24, 2006) as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Uruguay. WIPO holds the text of this law in the WIPO Lex database.

In 2019, the term was extended from 50 to 70 years. This extension applies retroactively. Therefore, works by authors who died between 1949 and 1968 would no longer be in the public domain.

You can find the list of Uruguay IP Firms here.

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