Amendments to the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus regarding copyright and related rights come into force

On November 19, 2024 amendments to the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus of December 7, 1998 (CC) will come into force, in accordance with which Section V «Intellectual Property» of the CC is set out in a new edition.

In the field of copyright and related rights, the main changes include the following:

• the presumption of creativity is enshrined, which recognizes a work as having been created by creative work, unless otherwise established;
• the term «transmission of the broadcasting and cable broadcasting organization» is replaced by the term «transmission of the broadcasting organization»;
• the term of validity of the exclusive right to copyright objects is increased, which will be the lifetime of the author and 70 years after his death.

It should be borne in mind that in accordance with the transitional provisions established by the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated November 13, 2023 No. 312-Z «On Amendments to Codes», the new term of validity of the exclusive right to a work applies only to those works for which the exclusive right was valid on November 19, 2024 (taking into account the specifics of calculation the validity period of the exclusive copyright in accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 20 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated May 17, 2011 «On Copyright and related Rights»). If the work has already passed into the public domain by this time, even though less than 70 years have passed since the author's death, the exclusive right to such a work will not be restored.

More detailed information about the main changes in relation to intellectual property contracts, as well as the application of liability measures for infringement of exclusive rights can be found on the official website of the National Center of Intellectual Property in the section «Actual».

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