Copyright law of Egypt
| Law on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights | |
|---|---|
| Citation | Law No. 82 of 2002 |
| Enacted by | Hosni Mubarak |
| Date signed | 2 June 2002 |
| Date commenced | 3 June 2002 |
| Related legislation | |
| Law No. 354 of 1954 (repealed) | |
| Keywords | |
| Patents, trademarks, industrial design, copyright, plant variety rights | |
Egyptian copyright law has evolved over time. The currently applicable legislation in Egypt with regard to copyright is Book Three of the Law on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights 82 of 2002, which entered into force on 3 June 2002, the day following its publication in the Official Gazette. The implementing decree is Prime Ministerial Decree 497 of 2005 (effective by Issue No. 12, Official Gazette, 29 March 2005).
Prior to 1954, there was no legislation in Egypt protecting artistic and literary property. Despite the absence of any such legislation, indigenous and mixed courts invoked principles of natural law and justice to protect intellectual property rights. However, indigenous and mixed courts had two different approaches to sanctioning violations. Indigenous courts refused to apply criminal law provisions, on the ground that no criminal responsibility could be determined in the absence of a specific legislative text dealing with artistic and literary property. On the other hand, mixed courts did not wait for implementing regulations to be enacted. In a hearing on 17 February 1941, the Criminal Chamber of Cassation, Mixed Court of Appeal, ruled that performance of a song or musical composition, without the authorization of the author or composer, was considered as an offence punishable under Article 351 of the Penal Law.
Literary and artistic protection were dealt with for the first time by Egyptian law in 1954, with the promulgation of Law No. 354 of 1954 on the Protection of Copyright. Article 20 of the law provided for a term of protection of 50 years after the author's death, although this was reduced to 15 years from publication in the case of "works of photography and audiovisual works that are not of creative character and merely consist of a mechanical reproduction of scenes." Official documents were explicitly excluded from copyright protection (Art. 4).
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