RwandaLaw on the Protection of Intellectual Property (2024), news exclusion and informatory-use and quotation exceptions
Law N° 055/2024 of 20/06/2024 on the Protection of Intellectual Property, arts. 282, 293, 297
In force since .
A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
As of .
What it requires
- You need not obtain permission to use news of the day or miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information, official texts of a legislative, administrative or judicial nature, or any idea, procedure, system, method of operation, concept, principle, discovery or mere data: article 282 excludes them from protection.
- You may reproduce by the press, broadcast or communicate to the public an article published in newspapers or periodicals on current economic, political, social or religious topics, or a broadcast work of the same character, without the author's consent or payment of royalties, unless that right is expressly reserved (art. 297(1)(a)).
- You may reproduce or communicate to the public, to report short current events, a work seen or heard during such an event, to the extent the intended informatory purpose justifies (art. 297(1)(b)).
- You may reproduce in the press, broadcast or otherwise communicate to the public political speeches, lectures, addresses, sermons or similar works delivered in public, or speeches delivered during legal proceedings, to the extent justified by the purpose of providing current information (art. 297(1)(c)).
- Indicate the source and the author's name, as far as practicable, for each use under article 297.
- You may quote a short part of a published work, without authorization or payment, if the use is compatible with fair practice, does not exceed the extent its purpose justifies, and indicates the source and the author's name where it appears in the work quoted (art. 293).
- Do not assume these exceptions cover an aggregator's systematic reproduction of headlines and snippets: no reported Rwandan decision applies them to it.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
What this law does
Article 282 excludes official legislative, administrative and judicial texts, news of the day or miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information, and any idea, procedure, system, method of operation, concept, principle, discovery or mere data from copyright protection, so a bare news item is never a protected work under Rwandan law, whichever outlet reports it first.
Article 297(1)(a) permits, without the author's consent and without payment of royalties, the reproduction by the press, the broadcasting or the communication to the public of an article published in newspapers or periodicals on current economic, political, social or religious topics, or of a broadcast work of the same character, where the right to reproduction, broadcasting or communication to the public is not expressly reserved.
Article 297(1)(b) permits, on the same terms, the reproduction or communication to the public, for the purpose of reporting short current events, of a work seen or heard during such an event, to the extent justified by the intended informatory purpose.
Article 297(1)(c) permits, on the same terms, the reproduction in the press, the broadcasting or other communication to the public of political speeches, lectures, addresses, sermons or other works of the same nature delivered in public, or speeches delivered during legal proceedings, to the extent justified by the purpose of providing current information. Article 297(2) requires each use under paragraph (1) to indicate the source and the name of the author as far as practicable.
Article 293 permits the use, in the form of quotation or of a short part of a published work, without the author's authorization and without payment of royalties, provided the use is compatible with fair practice and does not exceed the extent justified by the purpose. Article 293(2) requires the quotation to indicate the source and the author's name where it appears in the work quoted.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app reuses other publishers' content.