The following pages deal with the remedy and defences against IP rights violations accessible in Uganda today. The Author illustrates several judicial cases and decisions in order to clarify notions related to IP rights in Uganda such as “substantial infringement”, “casual connection between the plaintiff’s work and the defendant’s work”, “similarity”. The contribution does not lack references to procedural law aspects, such as the shift of the proof burden occurring in the procedure aimed at getting the protection of a specific IP right. Finally, the book raises a reflection about how IP Law affects economy, access to knowledge and what is generally referred to as the country’s “reality on the ground”.

1. Infringement of Copyright Section 46 of the CNRA (Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act in 2006) gives the instances that may give rise to an infringement of copyright or neighbouring rights. Section 46 states that, (1) Infringement of copyright or neighbouring right occurs where, without a valid transfer, licence, assignment or other authorization under this Act a person deals with any work or performance contrary to the permitted free use and in particular that person does or causes or permits another person to (a) reproduce, fìx, duplicate, extract, imitate or import into Uganda otherwise than for own private use; (b) distribute in Uganda by way of sale, hire, rental or like manner; or (c) exhibit to the public for commercial purposes by way of broadcast, public performance or otherwise. (2) The use of a piece of work in a manner prejudicial to the honour or reputation of the author shall be deemed an infringement of the right of the owner of the right [1]. In order for an action for copyright infringement to be sustainable, it must be shown that the work, which is alleged to have been infringed, is actually part of the works eligible for copyright protection within section 5 of the CNRA. The plaintiff must satisfy court that the work alleged to have been infringed is the subject of protection under the CNRA. Trade in pirated copyright material has been the subject of long court battles in Uganda. Due to the relevance of the following Ugandan cases, the facts, issues and holding, are reproduced verbatim here below from the court records and law reports. In the case of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd and others v George William Senkindu and another[2], in 1997, the plaintiffs brought an action against the defendants for infringement of copyright in the book Introduction to Biology alleging, among other things, that the first defendant was selling counterfeit copies of the book in his Kampala Newstyles bookshop, thus causing a decline in the plaintiff’s sales. Ntabgoba, PJ., found that the books sold by the first defendant were counterfeit (pirated copies). Relying on section 2(a) of the 1964 Copyright Act, it was found that the plaintiffs had copyright protection in Uganda and the plaintiffs were accordingly awarded Uganda Shillings (UGX) 10,710,000 in lieu of actual loss incurred by the plaintiffs, considering that each of the 765 copies sold has been sold at UGX 14,000 each. In addition, the plaintiffs were awarded UGX 6,000,000 as further damages. The court also granted the plaintiffs a permanent injunction restraining the defendant, his/her agents or servants from committing further infringements against the plaintiff’s copyright. As Kawooya, Kakungulu and Akubu note: Kampala Newstyles, which was at the time one of the biggest bookshops in Uganda, collapsed as a result of this case. This demonstrates the significant, practical effect that copyright can have, if and when it is [continua..]