Enforcement of copyright and related rights in Zambia-is the law adquate?

Abstract

Intellectual property is a term that refers to the legal rights which result from intellectual creations in the industrial, scientific, literary, and artistic fields. Intellectual property comprises creations that result from the mind, the human intellect. Intellectual property for some is an alien concept, while for others, intellectual property is well known, and developed. These countries have been able to use their power, and to fully exploit it to harness, and generate wealth for national development. It can be said that the development of the nation, does not depend only on the vast natural resources the country is endowed with but also on how much attention, progress, and achievement the country has made in the area of intellectual property.More importantly, intellectual property can be used as a major tool for national development. Its protection can ensure value added to indigenous products, and services, serve as an incentive to the nation's talented inventors, and can assist the national products attain a competitive edged in international trade. Intellectual property consists of two branches namely; Industrial property, and Copyright and related rights. This paper has dealt with copyright enforcement in Zambia. Copyright protection, and enforcement in Zambia is governed by the Copyright and Performance Rights Act, - Chapter 406 of the laws of Zambia. In order to appreciate the contribution that intellectual property can make to the national development, it is important to have in place mechanisms that would ensure protection, and effective enforcement of these rights. All intellectual property systems need to be under-pinned by a strong judicial system for dealing with both civil and criminal offences, staffed by an adequate number of judges with suitable background, and experience. Generally speaking, intellectual property law aims at safeguarding creations, and other producers of intellectual goods and services by granting them certain time-limited rights to control the use make of those productions. Those rights do not apply to the physical object in which the creation may be embodied but instead, to the intellectual creations as such.