New Copyright Laws In Kuwait

Creativity is the work of art stimulated by the human mind. Every song ever listened to, every movie ever watched and every article ever read (irrespective of the level of creativity) is the work of art of a lyricist, screenwriter, and an author, respectively. Although intangible, creativity shares a similarity with other tangible assets due to its capacity to generate revenue. Therefore, like every asset with an underlying value, the output of a lyricist, screenwriter, and an author is also capable of being appropriated without authorization or consent from its owner. Further, the efficiency of a state's intellectual property laws also underlines the level at which they intend to promote artistic works, inventions, corporate structures, industrial designs and everything else that could create an identity while generating revenue. Hence, legislators take utmost care and exercise diligence while drafting intellectual property legislation(s).

From a global purview regarding the copyright right law of Kuwait, the country is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the Arab Convention for the Protection of Authors Rights and the Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and Arbitrary Works1 (the Berne Convention). The Berne Convention was one of the first pieces of international legislation that took copyrights into account. Article 1 of the Berne Convention states that the same was ratified for a 'Union for the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works' for the countries to which it applies. Further, Article 2 elucidates the types of work that the Berne Convention seeks to protect. The Berne Convention has been considered as a primary international standard for legislators while drafting domestic copyright statutes.

A Significant Overhaul

Formerly, Law Number 64 of 1999 concerning Intellectual Property Rights2 (the Old Law) was the primary piece of legislation to govern copyrights in Kuwait. However, the ambiguities and procedural issues of the Old Law along with the economic progression of globalization gave rise to the need to implement a more structured and elaborate law to protect copyrights in Kuwait. Therefore, Law Number 22 of 2016 concerning Copyrights and Related Rights (the New Law) repealed the Old Law recently. Many suggest that this legislation is a response from Kuwait to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) concerns regarding an inefficient intellectual property...

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