and P3, to secure the license and by going ahead to organize the performance violated the
plaintiff’s right amounting to infringement within the meaning of section 46 of the Act.
The defendant’s counsel argued that the plaintiff had no right as the rights were given to the PRS
(UK) and not the plaintiff. He contended that the plaintiff and defendant were not parties to the
Deeds of Assignment and the defendant is not a party to the reciprocal agreement. He argued
that as such the defendant could not be held liable for breach of the deeds to which it was not a
party. According to counsel for the defendant, if there is no right for a party, there cannot be
breach because the assignment was not a transfer but rather a right to administer/manage the
rights of a composer or artist and not to replace the artist as the performers. He cited section
14(1) (a) and (b) of the Act as clearly drawing a distinction between assignment and transfer by
providing for each separately.
Section 3 of that Act is on its application. It provides that the Act applies to any work, including
work, created or published before the commencement of the Act, which has not yet fallen into
public domain where the work is; (a) created by a citizen of Uganda; (b) first published in
Uganda, irrespective of the nationality or residence of the author; (c) created by a person who is
a national of or resident in a country referred to in section 81 or; (d) first published in a country
referred to in section 81.
Section 81 of the Act provides for reciprocal protection of copyrights. It states thus:“A copyright or neighbouring rights owner who is not a citizen or resident of
Uganda shall be protected under this Act if the work was first published in a
country which is(a)
A member of any of the organizations specified in Part I of the
Second Schedule to this Act; or
(b)
A signatory to any of the international conventions specified in Part
II of the Second Schedule to this Act”.
The organizations specified in Part I of the Second Schedule are World Intellectual Property
Organisations (WIPO), Africa Region Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), The United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and The World Trade
Organisation. The international convention specified in Part II of the Second Schedule is The
Trade Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS).
This court has already made a finding above that by the respective Deeds of Assignment some
individual members of the UB40 assigned all their performing rights in their musical works to
PRS (UK). Furthermore, that PRS (UK) entered into a contract of reciprocal representation with
the plaintiff that conferred exclusive rights on the plaintiff to grant the necessary authorizations
for all public performances in Uganda.
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