Copyrights and Neighboring Rights according

Intellectual Property

Copyrights and Neighboring Rights according to Law No. 82 of 2002

Promulgating Law of Protection of intellectual property rights and its executive regulations

Regulatory Laws:

Law No. 82 of 2002 had been issued promulgating law of protection of intellectual property rights and its executive regulation issued by the prime Minister decree No. 1366 of 2003, issuing Executive Regulation of Books One, Two and Four and decree No. 2202 of 2006 amending some Provisions of the executive Regulation of the third book of law of protection of intellectual property rights, which abolished the Law No. 57 of 1939 on Trademarks , Law No. 132 of 1949 on Patents and Industrial Designs as well as Law No. 354 of 1954 on copyright protection.

Firstly: Copyrights

Nature of copyright according to Egyptian law

The scope of protection of a copyright:

First: works subject to protection of copyright:

Protection under this Law is conferred to authors of literary and artistic works, and particularly the following works:

Books, booklets, articles, bulletins and any other written works;
Computer programs;
Databases, whether readable by computer or otherwise;
Lectures, speeches, sermons and any other oral works when recorded;
Dramatic and dramatico-musical works, and pantomimes;
Musical works with or without words;
Audiovisual works;
Works of architecture;
Works of drawings with lines or colors, sculpture, lithography, printing on textile and any other similar works of fine arts;
Photographic and similar works;
Works of applied and plastic arts;
Illustrations, maps, sketches and three-dimensional works relating to geography, topography or architectural designs;
Derivative works, without prejudice to the protection prescribed for the works from which they have been derived. Protection shall cover also the title of the work if it is inventive.

Cases in which copyright protection does not granted under Egyptian law:

Protection shall not cover mere ideas, procedures, systems, operational methods, concepts, principles, discoveries and data, even when expressed, described, illustrated or included in a work.

In addition, protection shall not cover the following:

Official documents, whatever their source or target language, such as laws, regulations, resolutions and decisions, international conventions, court decisions, award of arbitrators and decisions of administrative committees having judicial competence.
News on current events, which are mere press information.

However, collections of the above shall enjoy protection if the selection of such collection is creative by virtue of its arrangement or any other personal effort deserving protection.

Second, the rights conferred to the Author upon his copyright According Egyptian law:

The author has according to the provisions of the law two types of exclusive rights, which are:

First, moral rights:

The author and his universal successor shall enjoy over the work perpetual imprescriptible and inalienable moral rights. Such rights shall include the following:

The right to make the work available to the public for the first time.
The right to claim authorship.
The right to prevent any modification considered by the author as distortion or mutilation of the work. Modification in the course of translation shall not be considered as an infringement unless the translator fails to indicate deletion or changes or if he causes prejudice to the reputation and status of the author.

Second: The material rights:

And those rights are not eternal and are subject to assignment or transfer (wholly or partially) to others; these rights include the right to copy, sale, trade, reproduce and right of public performance.

Such a transfer shall be certified in writing and contain an explicit and detailed indication of each right to be transferred with the extent and purpose of transfer and the duration and place of exploitation.

The author shall be entitled to such remuneration, in cash or in kind, as he considers fair for the transfer of one or more of the economic rights of his work to a third party, on the basis of a percentage of the revenue made as a result of exploitation, a lump sum or a combination of both.

Neighboring Rights

Nature of Neighboring Rights:

Neighboring Rights have developed rapidly over the last fifty years.

These rights had grown parallel with copyright to include similar rights, however often being in lesser capacity and of shorter duration, which are:

Rights of Performers (for example, actors and musicians and singers) in their performance.
Rights of Producers of sound recordings (such as tape recordings and CDs) in their recordings.
Rights of Radio and television programs.

First: Human Performers

Definition of performers: Persons, who act, sing, deliver, declaim, play, dance or otherwise perform, including expressions of folklore, in literary or artistic works protected by the provisions of this Law or belonging to the public domain.

Rights subject to protection for performers:

Literary Rights for performers:

Performers and their universal successors shall enjoy a moral, perpetual, inalienable and imprescriptible right to the following:

To be identified as the performers of live or recorded performances as such.
To prevent any modification, alteration or distortion of their performance.

The competent ministry shall exercise such moral rights, after expiration of the term of protection provided for in this Law, where there is no heir or successor.

Financial rights of performance of the artists:

First: Financial rights for uninstalled performances:

These Rights are about the possibility to prevent the following:

A –Prohibition of broadcasting of performance or communication to the public without the consent of the artist, on condition that it shall never be broadcasted before.
Prevent the installation of their performance, which is not installed without their consent.

Second: A financial rights for installed performances:

are the artists' exclusive rights of Performance to authorize reproduction, distribution, rental or availability of Installed performance.

Performers shall enjoy the following exclusive economic rights:

Communicate their performance to the public, authorize making available to the public, renting or lending the original fixation or copies of their performances;
Prevent any exploitation of their performances in any manner without their prior written authorization, including in particular fixation of such live performances on a medium, rental with the purpose of making direct or indirect commercial profit, or public broadcasting of such fixations;
Rent or loan of the original or copies of their performances with the purpose of making direct or indirect commercial profit, regardless of the ownership of the original or rented copies;
Make a fixation of a performance available to the public by broadcasting, through computers or other means in such a way as to enable the individual reception at any time or place.

The provision of this Article shall not apply to the fixations of performances included in audiovisual fixations, unless otherwise agreed.

Period of Protection, granted to performers:

Performers shall enjoy an exclusive economic right for the exploitation of their performances, as stipulated in Article 156, for a period of 50 years calculated from the date on which the performance or the recording took place, as may be the case.

Second: The Producers of sound recordings:

Definition of sound recordings:

A natural person who, or a legal entity, which, first fixes sounds for any work or performance for a performer, other than fixing of the sounds on images in preparing an audiovisual work.

Producers of sound recordings shall enjoy the following exclusive economic rights:

Prevent any exploitation of their recordings in any manner, without their prior written authorization. Prohibited exploitation, in this sense, includes, in particular, reproduction, renting, broadcasting of such recordings or making them available through computers or any other means.
Making a sound recording available to the public by wire or wireless means or through computers or any other means.

Period of Protection, granted to producers of sound recordings:

Producers of sound recordings shall enjoy an exclusive economic right to exploit their recordings, as stipulated in Article 157, for a period of 50 years calculated from the date on which the recording was made or made public, whichever comes first, within the limits provided for in this Law.

Third: Broadcasting organizations:

Definition of broadcasting organization:

Sound or audiovisual transmission, by wireless means for public reception, of a work, performance, sound recording or recording of a work or a performance, including transmission by satellite.

Broadcasting organizations shall enjoy the following exclusive economic rights:

Authorize the exploitation of their recordings.
Prevent any communication to the public, without their prior written authorization, of their television recordings, including, in particular, fixation, reproduction, sale, rental, re-broadcasting or communicating such works to the public through any means, including the removal or destruction of any technical protection of such programs by coding or other means.

Period of Protection, granted to broadcasting organizations:

Broadcasting organizations shall enjoy an exclusive economic right to exploit their programs, for a period of 20 years calculated from the date on which the program was broadcast for the first time.

Provisions under this Law on the assignment by the author of his economic rights shall apply to holders of related rights.

Without prejudice to the exclusive rights of performers and broadcasting organizations provided for in this Law, they shall only have the right to a single equitable remuneration for the direct or indirect use of programs published for commercial purposes of broadcasting or communication to the public, unless otherwise agreed.

International conventions that Egypt acceded, for the protection of intellectual property rights:

Washington Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits 1989 (acceded to Egypt on July 26, 1990).
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1971 (acceded to Egypt on June 7, 1977 ).
Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization 1967 (acceded to Egypt on April 21, 1975 ).
Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms –Geneva 1971 (acceded to Egypt on April 23, 1978 ).
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) 1994 (acceded to Egypt on June 30, 1995).

The necessary documents for registration of a copyright in the Arab Republic of Egypt:

Four of copies of the work subject to registration.
Author’s assignment of a work to the company applying for registration legalized up to the Egyptian consulate in the applicant’s country within a period of 6 months from the date of filing the application.
An official extract of the Commercial Register (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is an Egyptian), or an official extract of the constitution act (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is a foreigner) legalized up to the Egyptian Consulate.
Notarized power of attorney (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is an Egyptian) or a power of attorney legalized up to the Egyptian Consulate (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is a foreigner).

Procedures of registration for Copyright:

The firm provides consulting and work Research before conducting the procedures of filing an application for registration of copyright.

Firstly: stage of submission of the application for Copyright

Submission of application for registration of a copyright shall be conducted by the concerned person or agent.
Four of copies of the work subject to registration.
Endorsement of agent of the company which apply for registering a copyright to submit an official power of attorney legalized up to the Egyptian consulate at the applicant’s country of residence within 6 months from the date of filing of the application.
A deed of assignment of the protected work from the company applying for registration, legalized up to the Egyptian consulate in the applicant’s country within a period of 6 months from the date of filing the application.
Notarized power of attorney (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is an Egyptian) or a power of attorney legalized up to the Egyptian Consulate (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is a foreigner).
Endorsement of Author that the work belongs to him not to any other third party and it is a result for his own creation and also clarifying if this work was published before or not.
An official extract of the Commercial Register (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is an Egyptian), or an official extract of the constitution act (in case the applicant for registering a copyright is a foreigner) legalized up to the Egyptian Consulate (it may be deposited during a period of 6 months from the date of filing the application for registration of a copyright)

Second, stage of examination and obtaining a certificate of copyright:

It shall be checked that the application for registration of a copyright is fulfilling requirements regarding the law and its executive regulation, then a certificate of deposit shall include the nature of the work, its short description, its name accompanied with the date of filing, then it shall be printed, stamped And the owner will receive a copy of it and the other will be kept in the administration’s archives.
In case of acceptance of the application for registration of a copyright, two copies the written work shall recorded at copyright administration, stamped; taking into consideration that the author will be granted a certificate of deposit and the other will be kept in the administration’s archives.
The firm conducts all necessary procedures for transferring wholly or partially the author’s financial rights upon his protected work to others.
The firm conducts all lawsuits regarding any violation to a protected work subject to a copyright.

The legal period of time for protection of copyright:

The author’s economic rights provided for in this Law shall be protected throughout the lifetime of the author and for 50 years from the date of his death.
The economic rights relating to works of joint authorship shall be protected throughout the lives of all co-authors and for 50 years from the death of the last survivor.
Where the copyright holder is a legal entity, the economic rights relating to authors of collective works, other than authors of works of applied art, shall be protected for 50 years from the date on which the work was published or made available to the public for the first time, whichever comes first. Where the copyright holder is a natural person.
The economic rights of the author of a work of applied art shall expire after a period of 25 years from the date on which the work was published or made available to the public for the first time, whichever comes first.

Author’s commitment to exploit the protected work:

The protection of an author’s copyright and the translation rights of his work into another language shall lapse with regards to the translation of that work into the Arabic language, unless the author or the translator himself exercises this right directly or through a third party within three years of the date of first publication of the original or translated work.

Conservatory Procedures in case of infringement of a copyright:

According the provisions of Article (179) of Egyptian law:

In case of infringement of any right provided for in this Book, the president of the competent court dealing with the merits of the case, upon a request made by an interested party, may order, by petition, one or more of the following conservatory measures:

Drawing up a detailed description of the work, the performance, the sound recording or the broadcast program;
Discontinuance of publication, exhibition, reproduction or manufacturing of the work, the performance, the sound recording or the broadcasting program;
Seizure of the original copy, or copies, of the work, audio recording or broadcasting program and seizure of the material used for the re-publication or reproduction of such work, performance, audio recording or broadcasting program, provided that such material could be used only for such rep-publication of the work, performance, audio recording or the broadcast program;
Establishing the infringement of the protected right;
Assessing, and in all cases seizure of, the income made as a result of the exploitation of the work, the performance, the audio recording or the broadcast program.

In all cases, the president of the court may designate one or more experts to assist the bailiff in charge of the execution of such measures. The president shall require from the requesting party to submit an appropriate security.

The requesting party shall be required to submit the merits of the case to the court within 15 days following the grant of the order; otherwise, such order shall cease to have effect.

Under article (180) of the Act:

The concerned party may, within 30 days from the date of the grant or publication of that order, appeal to the president of the court who issued the order. The president may confirm or revoke the order totally or partly or designate a custodian for the re-publication, exploitation, exhibition, manufacturing or reproduction of the work, sound recording or broadcast program. The resulting income shall be deposited in the court’s treasury until the dispute has been settled.

Penalties stipulated by the Egyptian law in case of violation of any copyright:

Article (181) of Law number 82 / 2002 of the Protection of intellectual Property Rights stipulates the following:

Without prejudice to any more severe sanction under any other law, shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than one month and by a fine of not less than 5,000 pounds and not more than 10,000 pounds, or any of those sanctions, any person who commits any of the following acts:

Selling, renting or putting in circulation under any form, a work, a sound recording or a broadcast program protected under this Law, without a prior written authorization from the author or the owner of the related right;
Knowingly imitating, selling, offering for sale, circulation or rental, a work, a sound recording or a broadcast program;
Knowingly imitating within the country, selling, offering for sale or circulation, renting or exporting to a foreign country a work, a sound recording or a broadcast program published in a foreign country;
Dissemination through computer networks, Internet, information networks, communication networks and other means of technology of a work, an sound recording, a broadcast program or a performance protected under this Law, without a prior written authorization from the author or the owner of the related right;
Manufacturing, assembling or importing for the purpose of sale or rent any device, tool or implement especially designed or made to circumvent a technical protection means, such as encryption or the like, used by the author or the owner of the related right;
Removing, neutralizing or disabling, in bad faith, any technical protection device used by the author or the owner of the related rights;
Infringing any of the moral or economic copyrights or related rights provided for in this Law.

Sanctions shall be multiplied according to the number of infringed works, sound recordings, broadcast programs or performances.

In case of repetition, the punishment shall consist of imprisonment for a period of not less than three months and a fine of not less than 10,000 pounds and not more than 50,000 pounds.

In all cases, the court shall order the confiscation of the infringing copies, those obtained as a result of infringement, as well as equipment and implements used to commit the infringement.

In case of conviction, the court may also order the closure of the establishment used by the convicted person to commit his infringement, for a period of not more than six months. In case of repetition, the closure shall be mandatory in the cases of infringement provided for under items (ii) and (iii) of this Article.

The court shall order the publication of a summary of the judgment in one or more newspapers at the expense of the convicted person.