On this Wednesday, enforcement bodies have decided to work hard and cooperate in a bid to implement Rwanda intellectual property law. These bodies decided this decision in the three days workshop on Copyright and Collective Management system.

The participants were from Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) from various districts and provinces, Ministry of Commerce (MINICOM), Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Ministry of Sports and Culture (MINISPOC) , Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agencies(RURA) ,and Rwanda Revenue Authorities(RRA) and Rwanda Society of Authors .

The participants from different government entities were attentive and curious to know more about copyright system in Rwanda and collective management organization

The Rwanda Development Board prepared this workshop in collaboration with Rwanda Society of Authors for the sake of creating awareness on Copyright and collective management system. The users of works from different sectors converged to Lemigo Hotel where the users became copyright literate people. No sooner did the users get convinced than some of them who had been pig headed to pay royalties before, they decided to pay royalties. Amongst convinced users there media houses and hospitality companies.

Thatoo Joseph Mokobi, the expert from NORCODE, and former CEO of COSBOT (Copyright Society of Botswana) revealed that the copyright involves in increasing GDP of the country, and he gave example of COSON (Copyright Society of Nigeria) that play paramount role in GDP of Nigeria and he uttered that in USA the copyright societies play big role in national economy.

Nadine Bwiza ,The Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Society of Authors introducing Rwanda Society of Authors

Blaise Ruhima, Division manager of intellectual property department at Rwanda Development Board told the participants that the awareness campaigns will go on and he said that distance Intellectual property courses prepared by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be done by different Lawyers.

During the workshop the participants asked clarification on the difference between Rwanda Society of Authors and United Street Promoters. The Division manager of intellectual property of RDB , explained that United Street Promoters are the distributers but they break the law as they charge also copyright which is not their mandate. And they duplicate the works nonetheless they do not pay mechanical rights.  The DCIs of RIB highlighted that they have had confusion on United street promoters and Rwanda Society of Authors fortunately they got understood.

Rwanda Development Board ,Registrar General ,Richard Kayibanda reminded the participants that  national policy is to shift from agriculture based economy to knowledge based economy, hence ,they cannot look over the intellectual property especially copyright. Richard Kayibanda requested the attendees that they should put their efforts in order to promote creative industry in Rwanda in his closing remarks.

Rwanda Development Board organized the workshop of three days which brought together hospitality companies, Media and telecommunication companies and Enforcement bodies so as to create awareness on copyright and collective management system.

Thatoo Joseph Mokobi sharing the experience on enforcement Botswana Case study

There were Participant from all levels