President Yoweri Museveni has advised innovators to protect their unique creations by copyrighting them.
The President made the call while opening the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) Diplomatic Conference for adoption of draft protocol on voluntary registration of copyrights and related rights at Speke Resort Munyonyo on Friday.
The Council of Ministers of ARIPO at its Seventeenth Session held in Charlesville, Margibi County, Republic of Liberia in November 2019, endorsed the Legal Framework on Voluntary Registration of Copyright and Related Rights and directed the Secretariat to reformulate the Legal Framework into a Draft Protocol for adoption in a Diplomatic Conference held in Kampala, Uganda.
The Draft Protocol was endorsed by the 11th Extraordinary Session of the Administrative Council, which was held from 23 to 26 August 2021 following the review of the draft in a meeting of Copyright Experts held from 20 to 21 August 2021 at the Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda.
The Ministers signed the Protocol as a show of acceptance and adoption. The Protocol on Voluntary Registration of Copyright and Related Rights will come into force three months after five States have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession.
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The Protocol on Voluntary Registration of Copyright and Related Rights will establish a Regional Voluntary Registration of Copyright. It will create a conducive environment to ensure respect for the copyrighted works and facilitate the promotion of creative industries in the ARIPO Member States and Africa. The Protocol also aims to ensure that the creators benefit from their creative works, are incentivized to create more and explore new markets, thereby increasing their income.
The Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Draft Protocol on Voluntary Registration of Copyright and Related Rights was made possible with the support from respective ARIPO Member States, more especially the Government of Uganda through the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
The 20 ARIPO Member States are Botswana, The Kingdom of Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, The Kingdom of Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe
