Proposed Copyright Act Amendments on Regulation of Collective Management Organisations

This week, Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has published a set of draft amendments on collective management organisations (CMOs) available here. KECOBO has requested the public to give comments on these ISP provisions through the email account: publicforum@copyright.go.ke. In this regard, KECOBO has confirmed that it shall convene a consultative public forum on February 11th 2016 at the Auditorium of NHIF Building starting at 8:00am. This blogpost is a commentary of the key features of the draft CMO provisions from KECOBO.

High Court Upholds Registrar’s Decision to Expunge “KENYA BOYS CHOIR” Trade Mark

“The appellant cannot have been credited for singing and performing well, as a choir. He was not the choir. He was the Director, the Conductor or the Instructor. Therefore, when the prowess of the Appellant was recognised for the tasks he had excelled in, that did not, and could not transfer to the Appellant, the intellectual property which vested in the choir.” – Mr. Justice Fred A. Ochieng, Misc. Cause No. 193/2015 Joseph Muyale Inzai v Henry Wanjala, Sylvester Matete Makobi, Cliff Njora Njuguna,Masambaya Fredrick Ndukwe And Geoffrey Sauke Together T/A Kenya Boys Choir & another [2016]

In a recent judgment, the High Court has upheld the ruling of the Registrar of Trade Marks to expunge Trade Mark No. KE/T/2010/67586 “KENYA BOYS CHOIR” (WORDS) in Classes 16 and 41 in the name of Joseph Muyale Inzai. From previous posts here and here, readers will recall that members of Kenyan Boys Choir filed an application with the Registrar for expungement of the mark claiming that they were aggrieved by its entry in the Register for various reasons. The Registrar ruled in favour of the Choir members and found that Inzai had no valid and legal claim to the mark for the reason that his ownership of the mark was not sufficiently substantiated as required by law. Inzai felt aggrieved by the Registrar’s ruling and moved to the High Court on an appeal. This blogpost is in relation to the High Court judgment in that appeal.

Proposed Copyright Act Amendments on Liability of Internet Service Providers

In an earlier post here, this blogger discussed a set of draft amendments published by Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) for public comments on the subject of internet service providers (ISPs) and web blocking measures in cases of online copyright infringements in Kenya. Subsequently this blogger discussed here several comments submitted to KECOBO on the draft ISP provisions.

This week, KECOBO has published a revised set of draft amendments on ISP liability available here. KECOBO is once again requesting the public to give comments on these ISP provisions through the email account: publicforum@copyright.go.ke. In this regard, KECOBO has confirmed that it shall convene a consultative public forum on February 11th 2016 at the Auditorium of NHIF Building starting at 8:00am.

This blogpost is a commentary of the key changes in the revised draft ISP provisions from KECOBO.

Proposed Amendments to Seeds and Plants Varieties Act

Article 11 of the Constitution of Kenya recognises culture as the foundation of the nation and as the cumulative civilization of the Kenyan people and nation and includes science and indigenous technologies and intellectual property (IP) rights of the people of Kenya within the scope of elements of culture that are recognised. The Constitution goes further and states in Article 11(3) (b) as follows:

“Parliament shall enact legislation to recognise and protect the ownership of indigenous seeds and plant varieties, their genetic and diverse characteristics and their use by the communities of Kenya”

It is this constitutional imperative that has resulted in the recently proposed amendments to the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act (Chapter 326 Laws of Kenya). A copy of the Seeds and Plant Varieties Amendment Bill, 2015 is available here.

Netflix in Kenya, Africa – A Fix for Copyright Piracy?

This week, Netflix, the popular American multinational subscription video on demand (SVoD) internet streaming media service provider announced that it’s service has gone live globally. Kenya is among 130 countries that can now access internet streaming TV from Netflix. In Kenya, Netflix is now available via their official website: https://www.netflix.com/ke/  which means that for one monthly price Kenyan consumers can sign up to enjoy Netflix original series as well as its huge catalog of licensed TV shows and movies simultaneously with the rest of the world. As of October 2015, Netflix had 69.17 million subscribers globally, including more than 43 million in the United States of America.